In this installment of the 'Hunker Games' I'm showing a full workout with only 1 weight.  In this video I'm using a Kettlebell, but you don't have to.  It's only to show that you don't need a whole suite of equipment to kick your own butt.   Enjoy!

As always, keep coming back as we all try to get through this craziness together, but apart.  Thanks for watching!




music: "Elevate" Bendsounds.com

Hopefully you all got to try out yesterday's workout. If not check it out! In today's workout you'll need some weights and a Swiss ball. Please let us know what you think of the workouts and feel free to share with your friends! 

​Warm-up - Take a shoulder width stance and perform 10 air squats followed by 10 arm circles in both directions.  Repeat for a total time of at least 2 to 4 minutes.  This will get your core temp up and loosen up all your major joints.  


Single arm Dumbbell Squat to Press - using a light to mod weight (in this demo I have 10lb) take that same shoulder width stance and place the dumbbell such your fingers face inward.  Drop into your squat maintaining good core activation, neutral spine, and knee/toe tracking.  As you stand up be sure to lock out at the top and then perform the press over head turning your palm facing outward.  Retract to start.  3 sets of 10 presses on each arm(lotsasquats)


Reverse Dumbbell Alternating Lunges - Take a healthy step backward maintaining an upright posture, drop down into lunge stance maintaining good alignment in the lower forward leg.  Push down hard with the forward leg and return to standing.  Repeat with the other side. 
3 sets of 8-10 per leg


Swiss Ball Hand Walkouts - Start kneeling with the ball at your chest.  Slowly, rock forward until both your hands and feet touch the floor.  Begin pulling yourself forward over the ball with your hands.  Keep strong activation in your core, don’t droop in the middle, and walk backward until your toes touch.  No launching!  3 sets of 10


Dumbbell Chest Flys on Swiss Ball - From a seated position with the dumbbells in hand.  Slowly walk your feet outward until your head and shoulders are on the ball.  Your hips should be off and your glutes squeezing so that you are in a ‘tabletop’ like position.  Press the weights over your chest, palms facing.  Slowly lower the weights with a slight elbow bend until your arms reach all the way outward.  Can also be performed one arm at a time for extra glute/core work.  3 sets of 10


Reverse Dumbbell Fly on Swiss Ball - Place the weights on the floor in front of the ball.  Anchor your feet flat on a wall behind you and push your body up over the ball.  From this elevated position grab hold of the weights and raise your arms out, squeezing your shoulder blades together.  3 sets of 10


Upper Body Russian Twist - Holding onto on dumbbell walk your feet out as you did for the chest flys.  Hold on to the ends of the weight and press over your chest.  Keep a strong contraction in your glutes and rotate your upper body to the left and right sides alternating.  
3 sets of 10 each direction.

​

Hello All!  As you no doubt are aware we are unfortunately closed for the time being.  As such, we wanted to make sure that you all have a resource to turn to for maintaining your exercise plans.  

Moving forward during this period we will be posting regular updates to this site with actionable material for you to take advantage of.  Be sure to check back daily over the next several weeks for these updates and new programs.  

Box Squats - A chair or bench is ok, as is just air squatting.  Don't overthink it, just sit down and try not to lean back and rock forward as you stand back up.  
Pushups - Shown are some modifications to make it easier to get larger numbers.  If you can do multiple sets of 10 full ones, do that.  
Lateral Lunges - Take a healthy step out and stick your butt back as you sit down through your heels.  Keep your lower leg aligned with your feet/toes and push off hard to return to center.
Floor Bridges - Two footed with a pause helps get a strong contraction.  But if you're pushing 20 and it's getting easy, switch to a single leg version.  
Side Planks - Start out by holding for 10-15 seconds for a few reps.  Build up those hold times to 45 seconds or a minute.  Try to shoot for a total hold time of 3 minutes.

Keep moving out there!  We'll be back tomorrow with another routine.  Feel free to reach out (virtually of course) with questions or leave a comment below!  



music: Bensounds.com

In a previous post I talked about theme running events.   Being unfamiliar with these types of runs prior, I was very excited by them.   I'll be honest, I REALLY wanted to do the zombie one, but I was too late to register for one in Seattle, so I signed up for the Tough Mudder in October.  This event is much more intimidating than the zombie run and I was not entirely sure how to train for it exactly.  After bombing Bloomsday two years ago having pulled a calf due to my lack of road running I have accepted the fact that I am old enough to do better.

I tried to follow rather general training principle that I use for any activity, match your workouts as closely as possible to the event in quiestion.   We do this all the time in our programming.  For tennis or golf we incorporate movements which will aid in shoulder mobility and rotation.  A marathoner or triahtlete will build over weeks up to the race day load so that the body is familiar with the stresses placed on it.  And on and on...  However, I just wasn't sure how to get close to 12 miles and 25 physical obstacles.  

It might seem obvious now, but I’ll admit it took me a week of treadmill/weight lifting circuits to realize that playground equipment was the better fit.  A large open space to run on for about 1/2 mile or so and fixed sturdy equipment that I can use to move my body around on.  


The event’s obstacles vary but in general the difficult ones emphasize upper body pulling and pushing such as, log carrying, wall climbing, pulling yourself out of the ice-water dunking area, etc.   So, as I come to a stop near the play equipment, I’ll grab the monkeybars and do pull-ups, then switch to pushups or some squats, If there’s a bench I’ll do dips or step ups.  Some challenges also require jumping or leaping so doing a set of short sprints or pretend basketball layups will really boost the heart rate.   It varies and I usually go for about 2 minutes.  After that, I’m back to the field for more jogging.   Yes, it probably looks ridiculous, that's the nice thing about ear buds....I don't hear people wondering what the hell I'm doing on a children's playground.

Since the event is not timed, I’m not really concerned with my running pace, just completing the run/obstacle/run/obstacle format.   The trick to increasing the number of circuits is to use the jog as your rest period.  It’s challenging, so I’m also spending a lot of time stretching out.  

Try the playground workout as a fun change up to a boring road run that incorporates some strength work.  Regular cardio/strength circuits are fun too, but it’s nice to be outside while you can.  

The double bonus was taking Jack with me once and he played with a friend he saw while I worked out.   Initially, he said he would run with me a little bit but when he saw his friend, he was off and gone.  So, working out while he plays pirates beats sitting on a park bench buried in my iPhone.

Speaking of iPhone - Needing some new music.  U2 and some Arcade Fire mixes.  Alternative Cardio Pandora station is good too.  Still, I could use something new. Suggestions?

Free squatting or body weight squatting is a great exercise.  Unlike a back squat with a bar across the back, your hands are free allowing you to use dumbbells, medicine balls or other handheld implement.  Increasing and/or moving a different weight is only one part of good squat form.  Balance is also an important skill to be developed.  Try a wobble board or a Bosu ball for a fun challenge.  View the clip above and see how it's done!

After spending a week in my perfectly air conditioned studio I really crave being out in the sun.  It is common to walk into Infinity Fitness on a sunny 100 degree day and find me dressed as if it is the dead of winter.  “Hillary are you seriously wearing a fleece!” is a popular summertime greeting. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love that I can keep my studio at a nice 68 degrees all day long. Sometimes even cooler if a client has to return to work.Truth be told I hate air conditioning, it feels unnatural. So, after 5 days of cold air and fleece I am ready to be in the sun. This summer so far has consisted of many weekend hikes and bike rides. 

This weekend I felt the need for a good weight workout. So, I grabbed a couple of our kettlebells and my Swiss ball and headed for my backyard. I was accompanied by my 7 year old, Jack, who added another level of intensity with constant questioning or the need to show me something really cool! “Mom! Oh man, look spider eggs are under this rock. So cool!” 

As usual, I started with my corrective stretches. My right hip has given me some fits lately with what I think is a strained hip flexor muscle. So, warmed it up and stretched. Much better! On to the workout. I did 3 mini circuits of 8-12 reps of each. With a minute rest before going to the next circuit. I’ve listed them below but you could make your own. Go ahead, get outside and lift some heavy weights!  (Not all exercises are pictured. Sorry!)

Circuit 1:

Kettlebell Goblet Squat
Kettlebell Overhead Press
Swiss ball Jackknife

Circuit 2:

Walking Lunges (Wow, my backyard is really long! Never realized it until I lunged it:)
Kettlebell Single Arm Bent Over Row
Swiss ball Back Extension with Arms Extended Overhead

Circuit 3:

Lateral Lunges Hold a Kettlebell at the Chest
Swiss ball Side Flexion (Use the side of the garage for support)
Kettlebell Double Arm Overhead Triceps Extension

I did feel I need a something a little extra so I think this week I am going to invest in a jump rope for home.  Adding a minute of jump rope between the circuits would have taken this workout to the next level. However, I did get some lateral shuffles and sprints at the end with Jack. He had negotiated some frisbee playing after my workout and his aim is not that great. 

Extras.......

• My post-recovery snack.... Green smoothie. (Video blog post coming soon!)
  
• Workout music: Pandora Radio Alternative Endurance.
  
• Frogger (cat) was also on hand for the workout. He didn't add much to the workout beside taunt me from the patio couch. He was my inspiration for the cool down activity.
  

Over the past several years one popular news story item that seems to keep coming up is that Americans don’t exercise enough and are comparatively out of shape with regards to other countries.  Taking a short break from designing torturous exercise programs I decided to investigate a little into what upcoming trends are coming in the hopes that some as yet unknown force is going to change that.

I began with a simple search for ‘popular exercise trends in europe’ and an article from the Huffington Post UK comes up listing said trends for 2013.  After updating myself on the currents status of Kim Kardassian’s baby(she’s fine btw) I read through the list of 20 coming trends to the British Isles.  

There were some interesting ones like the Ugi Ball classes, and whatever cardio tennis is that I will have to revisit here at another time.  Conversely, there were some not so interesting ones like Aqua Zumba and hot Pilates.  I’m not judging, mind you, if you want to get jiggy in the pool or sweaty on the reformer that’s cool, it’s just not for me.  Still, of the 20 trends that HuffPo/UK posted, 5 of the first 6 are exercise classes, #3 is some fancy stationary bike that costs 7500(I don’t know how to make the symbol for pounds).  The underlying suggestion is that the overarching trend in England is get out and get moving, and that’s great no matter what it is you’re doing.

Now then, lets see what’s becoming popular in America shall we?  In order to keep my scientific research equal let’s enter the search term, ‘popular exercise trends in America’.  I am astounded to see that another HuffPo article comes to the top of the list.  Both articles piggyback off of an annual ACSM list composed of actual industry research.   

However, just as with the UK version, they have done a bit of research on their own.  Here is the American 5 out of the first 6 trends.  

• Fitness Apps - running trackers, nutrition logging etc.
  
• Self Monitoring of physiology - HR monitoring, diabetic tracking
  
• Mobile platform classes - a yoga class on your iPad in the park, not weird at all.
  
• Gluten Free fast food - oxymoron
  
• Fresh Juicing at the supermarket - I gotta have more KALE!!
  
• More women doing heavy lifting - That couch isn’t going to move itself!
  

The missing trend, #1 actually, is that fitness professionals, like yours truly, will become even more popular in 2013.  That’s great for me, but I couldn’t help but notice that most of the American trends seem to be geared more towards appeasing convenience and less about actually doing something.  Downloading a running or heart rate app is cool, but will it really get you out running on the road or to the gym?  If there were any actual consequence for leaving an app unused, my Angry Birds will have all mellowed and died from neglect by now.  

Fresh juicing at your local supermarket is nice but often it’s expensive and still removes the person from actively choosing and preparing their foods.  I will not dignify gluten free fast food with space here.  More women doing heavy lifting I like quite a bit, so that’s good.  There are so many benefits to strength training that too many women discount or are afraid of.  

I am joking, of course, about the scientific validity in these simplistic pieces, however, the gist of each felt true to me.  We are a very innovative and tech savvy people here in the US of A, yet when it comes to fitness, nutrition, or other healthy lifestyle choices there still seems to be a sense of, “With the latest and greatest gadget I just bought, I can finally start that exercise program I’ve been putting off all these years!”

That seems like the wrong point of emphasis to me.  The new Xbox One comes out this year with a built in Kinect motion sensor for both regular and fitness related games and is projected at $499.  For that same amount of money I could get 2 heavy kettlebells and a nice pair of running shoes and perhaps have some left over.  

Do something that requires tracking rather than track what you aren’t doing.  Go to the supermarket and buy up some weird produce that you’ve never tried and make your own disgusting flavors of juice.  After some time you will find a combination that really tastes amazing(a little green apple helps btw) and away you go.  Finally, for Pete’s sake don’t go to a fast food joint for health food, just get the cheeseburger and fries and tell yourself to make your own lunch tomorrow.

Me and my iPhone:
My lovely wife is enjoying the fact that after watching the new Star Trek movie i've been listening to the Star Trek Pandora radio station.  She loves it, just ask her.

Lots of short circuit based workouts, Kettlebells and body weight mostly.  I'll be posting a good one later so check back on Thursday.

Jason