Archive

Tag Archives: Exercise

Your No-Excuse Workout Resource

June 5, 2014
Advice from Experience, Workouts
3 Comments

Hey y’all, just a quickie post to tell you about a pretty awesome site (it’s okay, I know you look at other sites) that’s a GREAT fitnessing motivator and resource called Fitness Blender. Don’t be intimidated by their gorgeous 6% body fat photos. They’re an incredibly accessible couple of personal trainers that just want to spread some health around. Super neat!

On the site there are hundreds of free workout videos, ranging from low-impact, level-one light workouts to incredibly difficult high intensity interval training sessions. You can specify the area you want to work, the type of workout, the level of difficulty, even the amount of time you want to spend or calories you want to burn. They’ve been working on their site constantly, and now that they have these new search filters, it’s even easier to use as a quick go-to when you want a workout for home or the gym.

Here are a few reasons why I really like these guys: Read More

Advertisement

Push It Real Good (your werkout)

May 15, 2014
Advice from Experience, Workouts
2 Comments

We’re all fitnessers here, which means we make time to work out regularly and eat things that are healthy most of the time.  Good for us. But one thing to be wary of is falling into a routine, and letting our bodies be lulled into a state of meditative workout oblivion. Our bodies are adaptable, which is awesome from a survival perspective, but mildly annoying from a fitness perspective. What happens is your body gets more efficient, and tries to use less energy (burn less calories) to complete the same amount of work. Great job, body! If bodies were employees, we would all be very happy with this increased efficiency. However, what we’re actually getting is a plateau. Our workouts become less effective as our bodies adapt.

This is why you should keep adding goals to your workouts. Pushing yourself from week to week, instead of completing the same workout every time, will keep your body working hard and burning calories. Changing up either the type of workout or the intensity of the workout are the only ways to push through a plateau, or decreased results. Here are a few ways to make sure you Push It. Read More

My Mom Is Awesome And Lost 27.5 Pounds So Far

May 7, 2014
Hey, Friend
Leave a comment

My mom has always been awesome, but recently she’s taking it to a new level by making fitness and health a real priority. She, like so many moms, is one of those ladies that makes sure everyone else is taken care of before caring for herself, and works harder than anyone I know. But sometimes it’s better to be selfish, especially regarding your health, and Mom finally decided it was time to focus on making a change in her own life for a minute. And, since it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday, I figured it would be a great time to INSPIRE YOU ALL with what a badass she is, and how manageable her journey has been.

Mom and I are similar in that our body types will take just about any type of food we eat and ask CAN I CONVERT THIS TO FAT NOW?! which means losing weight requires a lot of attention to detail. However, it is still totally doable. Here’s how the lovely Mom O’Neill got on the fitness train, starting at the end of January: Read More

Thanksgiving Parade Werkout

November 27, 2013
Workouts
2 Comments

You guys, the day is almost here. Tomorrow is Eating Day, and we all know from my widely read (by both of you) post last week that part of minimizing the damage on this Day of Eat is to work out in the morning. HOWEVER. Choosing between working out and watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade before you have to go to your family’s house is a VERY DIFFICULT CHOICE TO MAKE, so let’s combine the two and get our werkout in at home while we watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade, because SANTA IS COMING!!!!

So make some coffee, eat some toast with almond butter, and get ready for some fitness commercial breaks. Read More

Working Out When It’s Hard

November 6, 2013
Advice from Experience, Hey, Friend
Leave a comment

Oh, hey y’all. I know it’s been a while (again). I promise to pick back up now (really) on our regularly scheduled programming (like, one or two posts a week? nothin crazy). I was SUPER THROWN OFF by some stuff, including that pretty intensive ankle surgery I’m still recovering from, but I vow to continue to give you sweet fitnessing tips on the regular.

SO ANYWAY, let’s lead in with a quick chat about working out when it’s hard. I’ve had some struggles lately that have less to do with the surgery itself, and more to do with being significantly out of shape after being fitnessless for a month or two. This happens to a lot of us, for a lot of reasons, including, but not limited to:

  • work gets real busy and knocks you out of your workout schedule
  • you get a puppy and can’t get to the gym without panicking that he/she is practicing his/her house-training, indoors
  • you get injured and can’t physically complete a workout for a while
  • you’re sick and your recovery period just extends into the rest of your life and then you’re embarrassed for not having shown up at the gym and just end up never going back, ever
  • you straight up give up for a while

So, all of these things are very possible, and can lead to weeks or months going by when you’re not working out. Which means that even if you love love LOVED working out, it’s probably gonna be harder when you start again (ps, you HAVE to start again). Which means you won’t be as good at the stuff you were before, and you won’t like it as much because of that, and you’ll be way more likely to want to quit than you were before your Dark Fitnessless Era. Read More

Werkouts #2

July 18, 2013
Workouts
Leave a comment

Alright everybody it’s time to get real here. We can talk all we want about eating smart barbecue foods and getting through happy hour, but if we aren’t working out regularly, then we are not fitnessing.

If you’ve been reading (and you guys, I get mostly repeat visitors, so I know you have), then you are well aware that chillin on the elliptical for 45 minutes is not going to give you the best results. You need to work with varying your heart rate, adding weights, and changing up your routine. So, here’s another Werkout to help add some variety to your weekly routine.

Get some heavy ass weights with this, cause burning more calories rocks. I’m talking 12 – 15 pounds. You got this. Read More

But Working Out Makes Me Hungrier

July 9, 2013
Advice from Experience
Leave a comment

Nothing beats completing a totally kickass workout. Your energy is up, your endorphins are flowing, your muscles feel sore for a day or two, and you feel all smug and accomplished cause you are AWESOME. These are all very positive immediate effects of exercising. However, there is one very noticeable, treacherous side effect of exercising, and that is that you are So Damn Hungry.

HEY NO PROBLEM, EATING WILL FIX THAT

Exactly. EXACTLY. Being hungrier means wanting to eat more, which means that if you aren’t careful, you could be well on your way to undoing all of that superfine fitnessing. Especially if you are just starting a workout regimen, or upping your workout game — you can really start to feel the hungry in a big way, and easily eat double the calories you just burned in your ravenous, musclebound haze.

Read More

Box. Jumps. Y’all.

May 23, 2013
Workouts
2 Comments

So now it’s summahtime, basically, because in New York there is no spring, so it’s time to wear shorts and show off how strong strong strong our legs are. But first let’s do some box jumps and build those leg muscles. Because seriously y’all, box jumps are for real.

WHAT’S A BOX JUMP?

This is a very good place for us to begin. What is this thing? Well, to start, a box jump requires almost no equipment; only you and some sort of stepper, whether it’s those jazzercise ones at the gym with risers you can stack, or a park bench (that no one is sitting on), or a high curb thing that’s around flowers in the park, or something like that. Really you just need any stable platform that is anywhere from 8 inches to 2 feet high, depending on your level. Some people end up doing like 4 feet, which I just cannot fathom. I suggest starting with 8 inches to make sure you’re solid in your form, and then building up from there.  Here are the steps to doing a box jump: Read More

SEVEN MINUTES For God’s Sake

May 15, 2013
Workouts
4 Comments

Did you work out yet today? Yeah, no totally, I’m sure it was like, ugh, IMPOSSIBLE to get up earlier, cause like, you already have to be up so EARLY, and then after work, it was like, ugh, so TIRED, and just, it’s really TOUGH to find time you know? Yeah, no totally.

YES THAT IS EXACTLY IT.

I hear you. I wish there were some sort of like, really efficient fat burning method, or way to burn calories even when you AREN’T working out, or even like some sort of low-impact workout to help you EASE into that shit you know, cause working out can be intimidating. So terrible that those don’t exist, bro.

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE. Read More

Werkouts #1

April 17, 2013
Workouts
4 Comments

So I taught my first group fitness class and they threw roses at me after because it was so amazing.  Just kidding. But they were really sweaty after so I think it went pretty well. Anyway, the circuit we did was pretty awesome, so I figured all you hardcore fitnessers out there should give it a try.

Major plus: you don’t need any equipment. So, you can do this while you’re on vacation, or it’s raining and you don’t want to walk to the gym, or some guy is hogging the heavy weights, or whatever.

This works your whole body. THE WHOLE THING. Read More