Fabulous Friday Fitness Challenge

My work day is certainly not typical. My hours are all over the place, in any given day I can run with my run/walk team, drive around town putting up fliers, meet a friend for coffee and to talk about Juice Plus, then sit in front of the computer for 3 hours, then after school pick up teach a core class to teachers. No too days are alike.

Whether your day is as unpredictable as mine, or you sit in an office for most of it, we both could benefit from throwing in a few stretches. Taking a few minutes to slow down, lengthen our tight muscles and just breath can really make a difference. Not only in our physical well being but also in our emotional well being.

Your Fabulous Friday Fitness Challenge is to take at least 5 minutes to stretch. Warm muscles stretch well, while cold ones tend to tear instead of lengthen. So hop up, take a bathroom break or walk briskly to another department, grab a load of laundry and hustle up the stairs. Sit down on a chair, now you're ready.

• Take your right ear to your right shoulder. Hold and breath. Reverse.
• Drop your chin to your chest. Hold and breath.
• Pull your right arm across your chest, hold with the other hand. Hold and breath. Reverse.

  

  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/WL00030

• Extend your right leg straight in front of you, toes up, lean forward at your hips. Hold and breath. Reverse.
• Place your right ankle on your left knee. Sitting up tall, lean forward at your hips. Reverse.
• Stand up. Hold your right leg behind you, foot toward your tooshy. Hold and breath. Reverse.

If you have a few more favorites, toss them in there too. Visual learner? Check out this great slide show!



READY...SET...GO!!! 

comment when you are done.

Fabulous Friday Fitness Challenge

Friday...happy or not, here we are at the end of another hair on fire week. Looking forward to my Saturday, the busiest day of my week with Moms In Motion, my sons football game, groceries, school projects and whatever else shows up on the calendar. Whoa this mom stuff is busy and I bet your days are similar to mine.

So take 5 and squeeze in a Fabulous Friday Fitness Challenge. This week we're doing planks with lots of variations. We'll start with the traditional and move on.

http://www.fitstudio.com/workouts/the-plank-party

On the floor gals! Place your elbows on the floor directly underneath your shoulders, feel your shoulder blades squeeze together behind you so that your chest is open. Belly button in, curl your toes under and lift your hips. You should have a straight line from top of your head down to your heels. Hold and breath for 60 seconds.

modify:
bend your knees and balance on them instead
do three 20 second holds in lew of the full 60 at once
use the wall or a bench or a chair- just walk your feet back and line up that body

challenge:
from the start position, alternate lifting your legs one at a time
try reaching your hands out one at a time
try twist at your middle so your right hip drops toward the ground, then return to start and do the left

Don't forget to breath, feel strong and happy you are able to do a plank.

READY...SET...GO!!! 

comment when you are done.

The 10 secrets of StrollerFit

1. It's been documented in several articles and studies. When you push a stroller, you are burning more calories than walking alone. Us moms are always looking for a way to multi task and StrollerFit does this.

One article claims walking at a brisk pace can burn 100 calories, a brisk walk with a stroller bumps that up to 180 calories! Not only will you be able to squeeze in that exercise, but you'll also be more efficient while doing it. ediets Diet & Fitness blog

2. Walking with a stroller is not the only secret weapon of StrollerFit. Many of our exercises use resistance bands and tubes. The principle behind these is strengthening the muscle on the lengthening phase, much like pilates. This creates long, lean sexy muscles.

3. The weighted mommymuscle bar combines strength and resistance into one exercise. Using the muscle in both directions, increasing muscle strength. Muscle burns more calories than fat..so more muscle is good.

4. Your body burns calories while you are doing a cardiovascular exercise, like a brisk stroller walk. Do a StrollerFit class adding resistance training to that cardio and you'll keep burning calories for up to 48 hours after you're done.

5. No one has ever asked me why we sing in StrollerFit, or why I'm always encouraging moms to sing louder. Seems obvious right? Nice loud singing entertains our kiddos, what baby doesn't enjoy Ring around the Rosy, or what toddler doesn't like picking the farm animal for Old McDonald? True, but there is a bonus reason. When you sing, your uptake of oxygen increases. Making the effort of singing while exercising even more challenging AND building cardiovascular fitness. AHHH HAAA!

6. Adding imbalance to our exercises with the mommymuscle ball, or by doing them on one foot engages the core muscles, improves the proprioception sense and challenges the body even more. Balance is also a sense that will decrease overtime if we don't continue to challenge it. Weight bearing, gravity based activities increase our sense of balance and keep it from diminishing as we age.

7. Combining weight, resistance and imbalance really bumps up the calorie burn and effectiveness of the workout as a whole. Making the most of the short time moms have to exercise each day.

8. Above all, I believe the greatest part of the mommymuscle theory used in StrollerFit is that it allows a new mom who is also new to exercise to work at her own level, while working out right next to a mom who has exercised her whole life and is also being challenged. Now that is an all levels class.

9. The social advantages of working out with other moms are obvious. We love being in the company of others who understand we may need to stop to explain to our toddler why she can't hit her sister, or stop to nurse a baby who woke up late and is off schedule. It's also just fun to be around other moms in general.

10. Last but not least, I bribe the kids. Stickers, fun songs, tickling feet...it's all to get them to ask you "mom, are we going to StrollerFit today?" No not really, I just adore kiddos, but it's an advantage for sure.

So, the secrets have now been revealed. You now know why you were able to go from 34 squats to 48 in an 8 week time period, why your pants fit and why you're now able to unload the dishwasher while balancing your toddler on your hip without falling over.

See YOU in class mamas!