March 18, 2024

All About Legs by Tera Busker

All About Legs

Give your legs a boost! Here’s how to do it:

(Consult your physician before beginning exercise.)

 

 

20 Alternating Reverse Lunges
20 Squats
10 Burpees
1 Minute Jumping Jacks
20 Alternating Side Lunges
20 Mountain Climbers
10 Burpees
1 Minute Wall Squat

Rest for 1-2 minutes.
Repeat circuit 2-4 times.

Tera Busker is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fitness To Go, an exclusive In Home & Private Studio Personal Training Service based out of Roberts, WI. www.fitnesstogo.net

Add-On the Fun by Tera Busker

This is an Add-On Workout. Add on the fun by adding one exercise at a time! Super efficient and super fun.

(Consult your physician before beginning exercise.)

Begin doing #1, then #2, then #1. Then do #3, #2, #1. Repeat until you’ve completed #7- #1.

 

1.    10 Plank Up Downs
2.    15 Squats
3.    10 Jump Lunges
4.    10 Tricep Dips
5.    10 Pushups
6.    30 Mountain Climbers
7.    10 Burpees

Tera Busker is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fitness To Go, an exclusive In Home & Private Studio Personal Training Service based out of Roberts, WI. www.fitnesstogo.net

Exercise at the Park by Sarah Johnson

The park is a great place to lounge, relax and get some sunshine. However, if you’re in need of some workout inspiration, the park can also be utilized for a quick and easy workout to boost your mood and energy levels! All you need is a bench and yourself.

Using a bench, you can make plenty of hard work on something that’s usually used for sitting and resting! (Please consult your physician before performing exercises.)

 

Warm Up: Begin by warming up your lower body. Stand with your back to the bench. Perform a Squat up and down to the bench. Try not to sit and rest, but barely touch the bench. Perform 10-15 reps.

Upper Body Strength: Then, turn around and add some pushups! Place your hands on the back support of the bench, or if you’d like more of a challenge, on the seat of the bench. Slowly lower your chest between your hands and push yourself back up.

Lower Body Strength: Now you should be warmed up, and we can add some step ups. Place your right foot firmly on the seat of the bench, and pull your body and left leg up on top of the seat. Carefully and slowly lower the left leg back to the ground, and repeat 10 times. Then switch legs.

Repeat series as desired.

Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahJChicago

 

There’s ALWAYS Time for Exercise! By Tera Busker

Time Saving Workout Tricks

Have you ever planned on getting in a great workout, but you have to skip the gym because you just don’t have the time? We are all running late, in a hurry or have something else that we need to be doing but that doesn’t mean that you have to forgo your workout. You just have to make the most of the time you have.

Time your Rest Periods

In between sets or circuits, rest for ONLY the time it takes to catch your breath and feel ready for the next round and not a second more. Playing around on your phone, chatting with your workout buddy and flipping through a magazine will only distract you. Keep your rest breaks short and stay on task. You will be surprised how much time you save.

Interval Training

Unless you are training for a marathon or another endurance sport, there is no reason why you be doing long cardio sessions at a moderate intensity. Kick your cardio up a notch and decrease your workout sessions with interval training. By alternating high intensity bouts of exercise with moderate “recovery” periods, you can burn a ton of calories in a short amount of time. One great example is tabata training. Do a high intensity exercise like jump squats as fast as you can with proper form for 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this for a total of 4 minutes.

Strength Training and Cardio in One

Why split your cardio and strength training up when you can get them both done at once? Doing exercises that use multiple muscle groups as once in a circuit style with little to no rest between exercises, will raise your heart rate and challenge your muscles. Exercises like pushups, squat presses, lunges with bicep curls will have you breaking a sweat, shaping your muscles and out of the gym in no time.

Tera Busker is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fitness To Go, an exclusive In Home & Private Studio Personal Training Service based out of Roberts, WI. www.fitnesstogo.net

Exercise Bands for Fitness by Tera Busker

You don’t need a gym full of weights and machines to get a great full body workout. Using resistance bands can challenge your muscles in a whole new way. And the best thing about resistance bands is that you can do a workout with them anywhere.

Here are 3 exercises that will are guaranteed to give you results. The following is for those with a solid fitness base. (Consult your physician before beginning an exercise program. Perform exercises at your own risk.)

Squat Press
Stand in the middle of the band with feet parallel and shoulder-width apart. Hold handles at shoulder height, with palms facing forward and elbows bent. Squat like you are about to sit on a chair, keeping knees behind your toes. Stand back up to the starting position and then press your arms directly over your head. Return hands back to shoulder height and repeat sequence. Repeat for 10-15 reps.

Reverse Lunge with Bicep Curl
Place the center of the band under the arch of your right foot and hold both handles with the palms facing forward. Lunge backwards with your left foot and perform a bicep curl. Return to start position and repeat for 10-15 reps.  Switch legs and repeat.

Crunch with Lat Pulldown
Loop the band around a stable object, like a railing. Lie on your back, gripping the band’s handles with arms extended over head. Raise your legs and bend your knees so your shins are parallel to the floor. Crunch your upper body forward while drawing your arms toward your knees. Keep the elbows locked and straight during this movement and maintain a relaxed and neutral position in the neck – do not bring the chin to the chest. Roll back to starting position. Repeat 20 times.

Tera Busker is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fitness To Go, an exclusive In Home & Private Studio Personal Training Service based out of Roberts, WI. www.fitnesstogo.net

Fast Fitness: Get Results from your Exercise by Gen Levrant

No time this holiday season? Here’s what you can do for exercise in TEN MINUTES!

Check out this YouTube Video for a demonstration of the workout. (Always consult a physician before beginning a workout. Perform exercises at your own risk.)

Even though, for most of us the Holiday Season means a well-deserved couple weeks break, exercising may STILL end up taking a back seat.

What with that extra free time soon getting filled with seeing relatives, organising trips, entertaining little ones, watching TV, buying and cooking large quantities of food (not to mention eating it and drinking more than usual) before we know it, we’re back to work starting the New Year with some newly acquired holiday flab.

Thousands of gyms and health clubs DEPEND on this behaviour so come January, we jump on the New Year resolution “get fit lose weight” bandwagon cliché, more often than not broken in a matter of weeks.

So how can we avoid being a New Year cliché for another year running? Luckily the solution is pretty simple: look at your calendar and PLAN your time.

The “most wonderful time of the year” can, unfortunately for many also be the most stressful. Planning reduces the chance of getting “caught out.” Yes, sometimes unexpected things happen, which means we need to be flexible with changes, but knowing roughly what to expect each day affords a luxury that can reduce a great deal of stress.

The other most effective stress-buster? Yep, short bursts of intense exercise. Not only will this make you feel amazing, but it’ll allow the fog in your head to clear, giving you greater ability to stay centred if things end up being more stressful than you were expecting.

Gen Levrant is an Advanced Personal Trainer and weight-loss specialist. She runs a private functional training studio in Southampton UK helping people get safe and permanent results. For more info, email gen@fasterpt.com. Follow her on Twitter @PTGen or via Facebook.

Core Combo by Sarah Johnson

Combining moves at the gym is a great way to target specific muscles groups, as well as saving time by sticking close to one piece of equipment. Try the following quick core-strengthening combination during your next workout. (Perform exercises at your own risk and always consult your physician before beginning exercise.)

Utilizing the Cable Machine:

 

Plié Squat & Row: Move bar down to the bottom of the pulley.  Stand with feet wider than shoulders, toes turned out.  With an overhand grip, pick up the bar and bring to waist height.  Squat towards the floor, keeping your back straight and chest forward. As you stand up, push with your heels and squeeze your gluts and inner thighs.  Pull the bar to your chest.

Pull Over Leg Chase:  Place the bar about two feet from the floor on the cable machine.  Lay on your back, with your head at the end closest to the machine.  Bring your feet off of the floor, knees bent.  Grasp the bar over your head, and as your legs straighten and extend away, “chase” them with the bar, keeping your arms straight. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat.
 

Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahJChicago

3 Tricks to a Time Efficient Workout by Gen Levrant

Not having enough time has become one of the biggest excuses, for not being able to fit in a workout. As a trainer, one of my jobs in recent years has been helping my clients manage their time and work/life balance better so they see it actually IS possible to fit in quick effective workouts! And we all know the endless positive side effects of these…Yet on the other hand, so many who DO find the time end up not actually making the most

Whether you have a personal trainer or not, what are the workouts you do on your own like? Are they as time efficient as they could be?

Here are 3 ways to guarantee a time efficient and effective workout:

1. Schedule your workouts. Look at your weekly routine to decide the most realistic time with the least chance of distraction or disturbance. Once you have determined this, treat your workouts as essential meetings with someone whom you cannot afford to cancel. If you value your health, mind and wellbeing then you will have no trouble viewing and scheduling them this way!

2. Set a timer. Say to yourself for this period of 20, 30 or 40 minutes, I am going to train with no distractions. Then set an alarm. If you are using your phone or iPad, put them in flight mode. If you have young children, perhaps try this during nap or school time.

3. Change the variables. Meaning your rest time, number of reps/sets, exercises or order – every workout you do should be slightly different. In doing so, you’ll trick your body into working harder as it will not have a chance to get used to what you are doing!

If you attend a gym or health club, think how many people you see dawdling, reading magazines, chatting to their friends…or perhaps not even setting foot in the gym and going straight to the coffee lounge!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to socialise but we all want results from our workouts, right? So if you have a tight schedule, try these tips to always have time for a workout! Happy training and have fun!

Gen Levrant is an Advanced Personal Trainer and weight-loss specialist. She runs a private functional training studio in Southampton UK helping people to get safe and permanent results. For further info on how Gen can help you email her via gen@fasterpt.com or visit http://www.fasterpt.com/personal-trainer-southampton. Follow her on Twitter @PTGen, and find her on Facebook