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What's on your workout playlist today? How about some Peas!

Black Eyed Peas - Hey Mama

La, la, la, la, laah...



Finish the week strong!

Get rid of winter body fat.

Summer's just around the corner.
Want to blast winter belly fat?

Kick up the intensity!



Simply walking the dog or plodding along on the treadmill might be good for your heart but a recent study by the University of Virginia (UV) showed that women who regularly do high intensity workouts have far less belly fat than women who work out at an easy level.

This suggests that while just being "active" may be good for your overall health, if you want more significant changes to your body composition and body fat loss you need to work at a level that makes you breathe heavily. Additionally, one of the best parts of the UV study was that it was done with women who's mean age was 51 years old. This shows that despite the natural changes that occur with age, by increasing our workout intensity we can still change our bodies regardless of how old we are.

So, how can you effectively increase your intensity? Alternate short bursts of high intensity with active rest period or lower intensity exercises. This mode of training is typically called high intensity interval training, or "HIIT".

Below is a simple "Oh, boy!" workout I like to use when I'm short on time because it gives a big bang for the buck, conditioning the muscles, revving up the cardiovascular system and burning unwanted fat without taking a long time to finish.

Oh, Boy Workout:

50 Jumping Jacks
40 Alternating Rear lunges
30 Bicycle Ab Crunches
20 Pushups
10 Burpees (see pic above)

Be sure to warm up and stretch as needed.
Go down the list 2-3 times as fast as you are able.

JBC Fitness Challenge July 2010

Check out some scenes from Wednesday's boot camp-style JBC workout benefitting the OR Food Bank.

Thank you to all who attended! It was a blast!

Click here or the thumbnail above to view photos...

High Five on "The Hill"

Between the playground obstacle course on Monday and The Hill on Wednesday, the gang is due a public high five this week!

WOOT!

This week's URBAN Boot Camp highlights include progressive plyometric work as well as "The Hill". Both are great for building strength and power, as well as the anaerobic component of the cardiovascular system. Squats, deadlifts, leg presses, and the like are great for making us stronger, but doing hill work can directly translate to your running and walking ability by quickening your stride, increasing your leg strength, and lengthening your stride, and increasing your aerobic capacity. Your muscles have no choice but to work synergistically as your entire body is supported while you perform. Participants may have joked that I "had it in for them" but they were greatly astonished at their performance so much so that by the end they were all still smiling...even Leesha!

Why? Accomplishment! The gang discovered that the so-called "impossible" was not impossible and everyone was able to go longer, farther, and perform stronger than they thought they could. The progressive nature of our program means that everything goes together and has a purpose (see guys... there IS a method to the madness. Muahahaha!)

Give your body controlled amounts of stressors and it will adapt.

Here's a great article on hill running: Everything You Need To Know About Hill Training

Now, your turn.

Here's a plyo workout:

Squat reaches
Pushups

Split squat
Plank reaches

Squat jumps
Side hover

Split jumps
Plank walks

Ice skaters
Reverse plank w/hip dips

Exercise 45 seconds on/15 seconds off, down the list 2-3 times. Remember quality over quantity. Stay focused and land properly EVERYtime. Of course, sandwich this between a proper warm up and cool down.

As for The Hill ...Portland has tons of hills. Find one and do shuttle runs (or fast walk): go up one block, then back down to the beginning, up two blocks, then down to the beginning. Shoot for 4-5 shuttle trips, then cool down.

Have fun!

Average assessment results (1/4/10)

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu

Beginning Performance Results
Winter I 2010

shuttle run (# trips/1 min), 18
pushups (# reps/30 secs), 11
sit ups (# reps/30 secs), 10
squat (# reps/1 min), 27
pushups/sit ups 5x5 (# reps/1 min), 1.5
burpees (# reps/1 min), 10
line jump (# reps/1 min), 116
hover (# mins), 56

Workout of the Week

Hot Tabatas!
Stay cool and drink lots of water!

Dynamic warmup/stretch, 5-10 minutes

pushups, 20secs/10secs rest x 3
dips, 20secs/10secs rest x 3
squat jumps, 20secs/10secs rest x 3 ea leg

cardio: jumprope and/or shuttle run, 2 minutes

bentover row, 20secs/10secs rest x 3
biceps curls, 20secs/10secs rest x 3
one-leg squat, 20secs/10secs rest x 3 ea leg

cardio: jumprope and/or shuttle run, 2 minutes

Go down the list 2-3 times. Then cool down 2-5 minutes, as necessary.

Core exercise:
Hover 1 min/crunches (various) 1 min, x 3

Finish with cool down/stretch.

Workout of the Week

Back and Forth

2 min cardio

squats, 20 sec on/10 sec off x 3
pushups 20 sec on/10 sec off x 3

2 min cardio

lunge (of your choice), 20 sec on/10 sec off x 3
bentover row, 20 sec on/10 sec off x 3

2 min cardio

biceps curls, 20 sec on/10 sec off x 3
triceps dips, 20 sec on/10 sec off x 3

Warmup 8-10 min (include brief stretching)
Cooldown 10 minutes.

Workout of the Week

Move It!

2 min cardio (ie jumprope, running, etc)
One-leg squat, 30 secs
Spiderman pushups, 30 secs
Side plank w/hip dips, 30 secs ea side

2 min cardio (ie jumprope, running, etc)
Fwd/bwd lunge, 30 secs ea side
Seated row, 30 secs
T-stand, 30 secs

2 min cardio (ie jumprope, running, etc)
Side squats, 30 secs
Biceps curl, 30 secs
Triceps dips, 30 secs

Dynamic warmup 8-10 mins. Go down the list 2-3 times, resting/stretching as necessary between supersets. Finish with cooldown/stretch.

UBC Workout of the Week

Super Supersets:

Tubing rows
Biceps curl (tubing)
Split squat w/lateral raise (tubing)

Chin-ups
Pushups
Bench hops

Triceps Dips
Pullups
One-leg squat

Crab lifts
Hover/plank
Clam lifts

After dynamic warm up, do each superset 2-3 times, 12-15 reps each exercise. Finish with cool down/stretch.

What are supersets?

A super set is a workout in which you do two or more exercises back to back with little rest in between. It can be a great way to break through plateaus, burn calories, increase your intensity and endurance, and overload your muscles to facilitate the training effect (aka build/"tone"/strengthen).

Supersetting is especially beneficial when you are short on time but still need to get it all in. A simple example is to do a couple of push/pull exercises for your upper body followed by a lower body exercise.

For example:

pushups/pullups/squats
or
triceps dips/biceps curl/fwd lunge

You could also do an upper body/lower body combo, ie chest flye/split squat. One benefit of this type of split is that one half of the body "rests" and recovers while the other half works.

There are endless ways to put together supersets. The "trick" is to know your purpose and design your program accordingly. Check back tomorrow for our Thursday Workout of the Week tomorrow. Supersets included.

UBC Workout of the Week

Jumprope, 2 minutes

Fwd/rear lunge, 12x ea side
Med ball pushups, 12x
Bent-over row, 12x

Jumprope, 2 minutes

Dumbbell plies, 12x
Chest flye or cable flye, 12x
Reverse flye, 12x

Jumprope, 2 minutes

Lateral raise, 12x
Biceps curl, 12x
Triceps rope pull, 12x

Ab crunches, 25x
Egg rolls, 10x
Deck squat, 10x
Hover, 30-90 seconds
Side plank w/hip dips, 10x ea side

After dynamic warm up, go down list of exercises 2-3 times. Finish with cool down/stretch.

UBC Workout of the Day

Look for new UBC sample workouts each Thursday!

30/30*

DB squat w/shoulder press
Pushups
Lateral raise

Forward lunge w/biceps curls
Renegade pushup
Triceps dips

Deck squat
Hover
V-ups

*Thirty seconds on, thirty seconds rest.

Workout of the Day 3/31/09

What does your Mini Sergeant do for a workout?
Here's some of yesterday's personal workout action:

Dynamic warmup 5 minutes (included brief stretch)

Shuttle run w/5 soccer cones, 5 mins

5 x 5's:*

Squat thrust w/dumbbell t-stands (5 ea side)
Dumbbell Biceps curls,

Squat w/shoulder press
Overhead triceps extensions

V-sit w/dumbbell rotations (5 ea side)
Egg rolls w/dumbbell shoulder push

*Super-setted each group of two exercises, 5 reps each. Performed as many rounds as possible in 5 minutes followed by one minute active break (treadmill).

Short and sweet. Took about 30 (focused) minutes.

Enjoy.

Intervals or Fartleks?

Since no one was able to make the interval run/walk at Tryon Creek State Park yesterday, I took the opportunity for a solo run. I ended up doing two fartleks and one interval around the Big Fir Trail. As I ended my run (and thinking of you all as I so often do) I thought it would be good to address the difference between intervals and fartleks.

Fartlek (pronounced fahrt-lek) is a Scandinavian word that means "speed play." It is an informal training method that involves intense activity interspersed with low effort. Basically, fartleks are a change in speed for a short and undefined period of time or distance. This allows the runner to experiment, and keep things fresh while increasing performance. You decide when to begin and end your high and low intensity periods based on how you feel (via introspection) or by picking a landmark to race to. Run fast for as long as you can, then recover as long as you need or based on another landmark.

For runners, fartleks are a great way to increase overall speed and self awareness. Walkers who want to begin running can use fartleks by running as long as possible then walking for recovery.

Intervals, on the other hand, are more formal in that they are timed. Periods of high and low intensity have definite start and end times. Runners should build a foundation of easy paced, continuous running for 30-60 minutes before doing intervals, or speed work. Walkers transitioning into running can use intervals to increase their time spent running versus time spent walking.

Ratios for intervals generally begin at 30 to 60 seconds with a 30 second to 1 minute recovery time. On the high end, it is not recommended to do intervals lasting longer than 5 minutes since the goal is to push your anaerobic threshold (in simple terms, pushing your maximum and out of breath).

Check out these websites for more info:

www.coolrunning.com
www.slowtwitch.com
www.runnersworld.com

Keep moving, keep learning!

Workout of the Week

We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. "William James"

Warm up x 3: Jump rope x 100, 10 prisoner squats, 10 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, dynamic stretch

2-3 rounds for time:

10 Burpees

10 Fwd/bwd lunge

10 T-stand pushups

10 Combo: 2 situps/5 crunches

Post - Cool down/flexibility stretching