ELIMINATING EXCUSES | fitness

During your workouts, you are going to reach that point where you feel a burning sensation in your muscles. Your body will be drenched with sweat. You will be breathing hard and possibly wondering how much longer you can continue. You are at a pivotal stage in your workout. What do you do?

At this point in the workout, remember that you have goals to conquer. Remember that your body WILL do what your mind tells it to do even though the task may be challenging to accomplish. Take your focus off of the obvious physical signs of your intense workout; and envision how satisfying it will feel to exceed your current goals and to begin working towards that next level. Don’t risk an injury. Just make sure you bring your “A” game.

DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I will not be posting any videos in order to allow myself time to recover from some minor injuries. I would also like to remind you to make sure that you are giving your body ample time to rest and recover. Rest and recovery are just as important as the intense workouts. Be careful not to overtrain. If you have any injuries, address them as needed so that they don’t reoccur or worsen. A few things to remember:
- don’t work the same muscles back to back days. If you train consecutive days, work different muscle groups each day.
- ALWAYS listen to your body. If you feel pain, stop what you are doing and address the issue. If you need rest, make time to rest.
- proper stretching and warming up can help prevent injuries.

For those who will be training, DO SOMETHIN’!

On July 10, 2007, I asked you to tell me what I can do to improve this blog and to better meet your fitness needs. I asked for your general comments and for you to answer the following questions:

What is missing from the videos?
What do you want to see more of?
What don’t you want to see?
What can I do to better meet your needs?

Thanks for your feedback. From what you told me, you want to see more variety in my filming location, specifically filming outside, in order to have more new and different exercises and you want to see exercises from different angles. Thus far, I have incoporated more outdoor videos and I have included different angles in some of my recent videos. You also said that you like my direct, no-nonsense approach in the videos. There was a suggestion to put an Eliminating Excuses banner up in the background of my apartment. Unfortunately, that idea did not make the cut (sorry NJD).

I’ll keep this feedback in mind as I continue filming. Any other comments? You know how to reach me. Make it a wonderful weekend!!

DO SOMETHIN’!

You know what time it is! I know that you are anxious to get going, so I’ll be brief but thorough. Today, let’s work the chest with some incline push-ups. If you are able to do so, head outside to an open area with a bench. Place both feet up on the bench supporting your weight on the balls of your feet. Next place your hands a bit more than shoulder width apart. Now that we are in standard push-up position, let’s get it!!! Remember that you don’t want to lock your elbows at the top of the push-up. If you lock your elbows, you could injure your elbow by hyperextending a muscle or tendon. DO SOMETHIN’!

Some of you might not have been able to get up to the rim with ease for the rim pull-ups that I posted on Monday. Don’t sweat it! Today, I’ve got an exercise that will help you strengthen your quads and calves, which will in turn improve your vertical jumping ability. Ready to do some stair hops!! As always, make sure you are loose are ready from your warm-up routine before you DO SOMETHIN’. Let’s head outside to an area with a long, steep stairway. Starting at the bottom, jump 2 stairs at a time (your feet will touch every 3rd step) until you reach the top. Come back down. Rest 1 minute and include your walk back down the stairs as part of your rest. On the next set, jump 3 steps at a time. Rest 1 minute. On your last set, jump 4 steps at a time. As your muscles fatigue, it will be harder to jump the steps. Take your time so your don’t trip over your feet.

Make it happen!

Today, I want to introduce a dynamic exercise tool: the resistance band; let’s use it to work the outer deltoids. These bands are relatively inexpensive. I purchased a 2 pack from Target for about $10 (US). Check your local sporting goods store and the sporting goods section of Target.

Place your hands on the grips of your resistance band and hold it out in front of you. Extend your arms outward about 1 - 2 ft (30 - 60 cm) from either side of your body. As you bring your arms inward towards your body, do so in a slow controlled motion and don’t allow the resistance band to come to rest. There should be tension in the band for the duration of the exercise. This tension on the positive and negative motion forces your outer deltoids to work and that’s what we want! This constant tension makes up for the fact that we aren’t using any weights. Hit 3 sets of these and go for as long as you can; rest 1 minute in between each set.

For those looking to kick the intensity up another notch, squeeze your traps together as you do this exercise. Feels so good.

DO SOMETHIN’!

For those in warm, sunny places, let’s take advantage of that weather today and work our back and biceps with “rim” pull-ups. Find an outdoor basketball court near you. I must warn you that this exercise can be dangerous since it involves being high off the ground. Also, if you are like me, you have to be careful not to hit your head on the basketball rim when jumping. For those that can, jump to the rim and use it for pull-ups. Make sure that the rim can support your weight. If you can’t jump to a 10 ft basket and there is no basket less than 10 ft high near you, find a bar you can use for pull-ups. Do not use your knees to swing your body upward. Focus on using only your biceps and back muscles so that you isolate these muscles forcing them to do all the work.

Not only is this exercise perfect for working your biceps and back muscles (lats and traps), it will also intimidate your opponents causing them to leave the court immediately. Check out the guys in the video that left after seeing me do pull-ups. I believe one of them even had a tear in his eye. My bad.

DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I have a great exericse menu courtesy of Maja Varner. She is a talented engineer that has passion for fitness and health; she’s also a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader. I want to thank Maja for her time in filming this video.

Ever struggle with push-ups? Maybe you have a hard time because of a previous injury or physical condition. Maybe you are in the progress of increasing (or regaining) your strength and you are not a point where push-ups are managable. Vertical push-ups are an excellent alternative for anyone who has difficulty with push-ups and for those that want to try a different exercise for working the chest. Find a wall. Stand about 3 feet away on the balls of your feet; you might need to adjust this distance according to length of your arms. Place your hands on the wall a bit more than shoulder width apart. Now hit some push-ups. Use good form like Maja does.

Make it a good weekend. DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I have a great exericse menu courtesy of Maja Varner. She is a talented engineer that has passion for fitness and health; she’s also a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader. I want to thank Maja for her time in filming this video.

Time to stretch those inner thighs (groin area). This stretch is an important one because it works an area that many athletes injure. Maja’s using the same wall that she did yesterday for the hamstring stretch. Start with your leg on the wall as if you were going to do a hamstring stretch and then rotate your leg 90 degrees. The inside of your foot will be touching the wall. Bending your supporting leg so that your body moves closer to the ground intensifies the stretch. Keep the foot of your supporting leg firmly on ground so that you have a solid base. Work both your right and left. Got it?

DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I have a great exericse menu courtesy of Maja Varner. She is a talented engineer that has passion for fitness and health; she’s also a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader. I want to thank Maja for her time in filming this video.

Today, I want to add another stretch to your stretching routine. This hamstring stretch is straightforward and gets the job done. Keep your leg straight as you stretch your hamstring. Also, try not to arch your back as you lean towards your leg; keeping your back straight will prevent you from injuring your back.

DO SOMETHIN’!