Here is the Challenge info in 1 place for easy reference.
- Proper Push up and Sit up Form
- Determing your fitness Level & Week 1 Goals
- Week 2 Goals
- Week 3 Goals
- Week 4 Goals
Your Personal Trainer,
Coach Andi
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
August 5, 2013
FIT Push up & Sit up Challenge Plan
The FIT Push up & Sit up Challenge is for anyone and everyone who wants to become stronger. No gym membership is required and you don't have to dedicate hours of your time. You can also perform the challenge as your only workout or incorporate it into any workout routine your currently have.
Here is the Challenge info in 1 place for easy reference.
Your Personal Trainer,
Coach Andi
Here is the Challenge info in 1 place for easy reference.
Your Personal Trainer,
Coach Andi
August 1, 2013
5 Tips for Fitness Success
Many of us look back to the last time we were on a path to a healthy lifestyle by being active and eating better, but at the present, for some reason, we are not in the same place. We often wonder why? Why did I stop?
Often times you may have fallen ill, had an event to go to, or simply were too tired to "hit" the gym and you gave into temptation and ate a whole bag of chips or ate a huge piece of cake at a party. For many, that's the end of the road to their journey. Without even realizing we believe that because we missed ONE day at the gym or indulged ONE day that it's all over and we have ruined ourselves and deserve to fall right back into our old patterns of living an unhealthy lifestyle.
I'm here to tell you that IT'S NOT TRUE. You didn't ruin anything and you deserve better than eating nonsense everyday and feeling bad not just about how you look, but how you feel. What happened wasn't a situation to end your journey. Simply put, LIFE HAPPENED. Life will always happen and you have to learn to deal with it.
Here are some tips that I have gathered over the course of the last few weeks that I believe will help us all learn to deal with what life throws us without giving up on our health. I struggle just as anyone else does. I have had to travel for work a lot lately and was struggling with fitting my normal routing into my travel schedule, but was able to pull myself together by implementing the tips below.
1. PLAN! Planning your fitness and eating routing is extremely important, if not the most important key to success. Writing down a plan will make it official and help you keep track of your progress. Schedule and view your fitness plan like you would any other appointment. Make time for it. FIT IN TIME for fitness.
2. FLEXIBILITY. So, you missed one day. You are sick, have a family event to attend, are just too tired. That's ok. It happens. Learn to deal with missing a scheduled day to workout. We all need breaks and view this as a time to relax and become stronger for your next workout session. You can make it up if you have time or just pick up where you left off and get it in on your next scheduled day.
Also, if you find that your workout plan says you need to dedicate 45 minutes, but you don't have 45 consecutive minutes that day, break up your work out. Do a portion in the morning and a portion in the evening. Don't be afraid to change things up. The important thing is to get something in.
3. CREATIVITY. Find activities you enjoy and include those into your plan. Do you love to hike, swim, garden, bike, dance, etc? Fit it in. Find creative ways to stay active that bring a smile to your face. Fitness doesn't have to be boring and it doesn't have to include a gym membership. Go online, find a group in your area in the area you enjoy. Meetup.com is a great place for finding groups.
4. PACE. Go at your own pace. Don't worry about what those around you are doing or what the experienced trainers are doing in the exercise video. The key is that you learn the correct way of doing things and then go at your own pace. Feeling the pressure to perform at a level you are not ready to will only cause frustration and demotivate you from continuing.
Share with us your exeperiences and success stories to encourage others to keep on going and continue their journey on living a healthy lifestyle.
Your Personal Trainer,
Andi Dornelas
Often times you may have fallen ill, had an event to go to, or simply were too tired to "hit" the gym and you gave into temptation and ate a whole bag of chips or ate a huge piece of cake at a party. For many, that's the end of the road to their journey. Without even realizing we believe that because we missed ONE day at the gym or indulged ONE day that it's all over and we have ruined ourselves and deserve to fall right back into our old patterns of living an unhealthy lifestyle.
I'm here to tell you that IT'S NOT TRUE. You didn't ruin anything and you deserve better than eating nonsense everyday and feeling bad not just about how you look, but how you feel. What happened wasn't a situation to end your journey. Simply put, LIFE HAPPENED. Life will always happen and you have to learn to deal with it.
Here are some tips that I have gathered over the course of the last few weeks that I believe will help us all learn to deal with what life throws us without giving up on our health. I struggle just as anyone else does. I have had to travel for work a lot lately and was struggling with fitting my normal routing into my travel schedule, but was able to pull myself together by implementing the tips below.
TIPS FOR FITNESS SUCCESS
1. PLAN! Planning your fitness and eating routing is extremely important, if not the most important key to success. Writing down a plan will make it official and help you keep track of your progress. Schedule and view your fitness plan like you would any other appointment. Make time for it. FIT IN TIME for fitness.
2. FLEXIBILITY. So, you missed one day. You are sick, have a family event to attend, are just too tired. That's ok. It happens. Learn to deal with missing a scheduled day to workout. We all need breaks and view this as a time to relax and become stronger for your next workout session. You can make it up if you have time or just pick up where you left off and get it in on your next scheduled day.
Also, if you find that your workout plan says you need to dedicate 45 minutes, but you don't have 45 consecutive minutes that day, break up your work out. Do a portion in the morning and a portion in the evening. Don't be afraid to change things up. The important thing is to get something in.
3. CREATIVITY. Find activities you enjoy and include those into your plan. Do you love to hike, swim, garden, bike, dance, etc? Fit it in. Find creative ways to stay active that bring a smile to your face. Fitness doesn't have to be boring and it doesn't have to include a gym membership. Go online, find a group in your area in the area you enjoy. Meetup.com is a great place for finding groups.
4. PACE. Go at your own pace. Don't worry about what those around you are doing or what the experienced trainers are doing in the exercise video. The key is that you learn the correct way of doing things and then go at your own pace. Feeling the pressure to perform at a level you are not ready to will only cause frustration and demotivate you from continuing.
5. SURPRISE YOURSELF. Many times we often underestimate our ability and strength. Someone mentions an exercise and your first thought is "oh, I can't do that". Well, have you tried recently? I mean, really tried? I would bet that you will tend to surprise yourself more than disappoint. So, I encourage you to take a chance and do something you don't think you can.
SURPRISE YOURSELF!
Share with us your exeperiences and success stories to encourage others to keep on going and continue their journey on living a healthy lifestyle.
Your Personal Trainer,
Andi Dornelas
July 12, 2013
Push up Challenge: Benefits of Push ups
FIT Push up & Sit up Challenge can be done by
ANYONE, ANYWHERE, and ANY TIME.
Recently, I have been very busy with my day job and FIT Camp, amongst other things, making it difficult to get a workout in myself. In an effort to keep active, even when I'm stuck inside my house, I decided to complete at least 30 push ups (3 sets of 10) and 60 (3 sets of 20) sit ups a day. That way, if I can't fit in a long workout, at least I got something in. In 1 week I started noticing a difference in my upper body muscle size and tone. I not only started seeing physical results, but became surprised at how much strength I actually had and how quickly I was improving. That explains my recent tag line of SURPRISE YOURSELF! I have been surprising myself and I know you will too! ... and this is a great way for you to do it.
Many times we find ourselves unable to attend the gym and much fit in a workout at our home, job, park, etc. Push ups can be a great method to build and maintain your strength.
Push ups work your entire upper body; this includes muscles such as your deltoids, lats, triceps, pectorals, biceps and abs.
Push ups also increases your heart rate when performing high reps, which in turn helps raise the metabolism.
They are a great exercise to warm up the body and help reduce the chance of injury during weight training. Using your body weight will get your blood pumping throughout your body and get your muscles ready for listing heavier weight.
Depending on your strength level, push ups can help either build muscle or tone.
Build muscle = Lower reps with more weight
Tone muscle = High reps with less weight
(Women tend to want to stick to toning only because of the fear of getting big, but generally speaking, you can only tone a muscle if you have a muscle)
If you’re a beginner and can manage to do 5-10 push ups at once, you will notice improvements to the size of your muscle from just doing push ups. As you progressively manage to do a higher number of push ups at once, you will notice more improvements to your tone.
If you have a high strength level (you can do 30-40 push ups at once) , you may feel push ups are useless, but it is beneficial. If you consistently stick to exercises that build muscle strength and side at a max rep of 10, your body will become familiar with this range. To effectively have your body improve and grow, you must perform workout routines that introduce, the all famous, muscle confusion. Push ups are a great way to mix in a higher rep exercise while maintaining muscular strength and improving your muscle tone.
The FIT Push up Challenge will provide rep suggestions for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced strength levels. I hope you join us and SURPRISE YOURSELF!!!
 |
| This picture illustrates all the muscles being actively used when performing sit ups. |
Push ups also increases your heart rate when performing high reps, which in turn helps raise the metabolism.
They are a great exercise to warm up the body and help reduce the chance of injury during weight training. Using your body weight will get your blood pumping throughout your body and get your muscles ready for listing heavier weight.
Depending on your strength level, push ups can help either build muscle or tone.
Build muscle = Lower reps with more weight
Tone muscle = High reps with less weight
(Women tend to want to stick to toning only because of the fear of getting big, but generally speaking, you can only tone a muscle if you have a muscle)
If you’re a beginner and can manage to do 5-10 push ups at once, you will notice improvements to the size of your muscle from just doing push ups. As you progressively manage to do a higher number of push ups at once, you will notice more improvements to your tone.
If you have a high strength level (you can do 30-40 push ups at once) , you may feel push ups are useless, but it is beneficial. If you consistently stick to exercises that build muscle strength and side at a max rep of 10, your body will become familiar with this range. To effectively have your body improve and grow, you must perform workout routines that introduce, the all famous, muscle confusion. Push ups are a great way to mix in a higher rep exercise while maintaining muscular strength and improving your muscle tone.
The FIT Push up Challenge will provide rep suggestions for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced strength levels. I hope you join us and SURPRISE YOURSELF!!!
April 12, 2010
To a lifetime of a healther, happier, skinnier you!
Many people I know at the first attempt to lose weight decide they are going to stop eating or they go on some crazy diet. A crazy diet consists of rules on what NOT to eat or what to eat a lot of (ie. atkins diet, fat free diet, eggs only diet). I at times have attempted these types of diets from not eating, to trying a few weight loss pills, to eliminating carbs, and eliminating protein. The end result was always the same: FAILURE. I may have lost a few pounds in a week or two, but surely, the weight found it's way back to me.
It is very rare that individuals who achieve rapid weight loss will be able to maintain it. Why? The reason why is because individuals who achieve rapid weight loss did so by depriving themselves of something, whether it be protein, carbs, or dessert. I mean, who wants to live their lives without some good juicy steak, or some spaghetti to go with the chicken parm, or the occasional cheesecake on the weekend (ice cream in the summer). I don't think anyone. We all have our guilty pleasure and we should all be allowed. No matter what our weight is. I think the problem we all have is that we wind up indulging and instead of having a cup of ice cream, we have 2. So, what we need to do is learn not to indulge....have self control.
Living a healthy lifestyle requires a lot of self control. Sometimes, it requires you to just take a whiff of that philly cheese steak and dream of eating it. It means eating a healthy meal at home before going to a party where you will be tempted with all the great food and dessert. It's not to say you will never eat a philly cheese steak or eat all the party food and dessert, it just means you have the power to choose when you will and will not.
I eat cheeseburgers, pizza, ice cream, cheesecake, chicken parm, donuts...but I also eat salads, veggies, fruits, yogurts. Having a balanced diet means eating healthy and every once in a while eating those "not so great for you" foods. The key is the portions. If you eat 1/2 a cup of frozen yogurt every day, you are less likely to over indulge on sweets on a weekend or while you are out.
So here are a few tips on living a healthy lifestyle and how to successfully lose weight and KEEP it off.
1. Eat! Don't skip meals, especially breakfast. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. It sets the stage for your eating habits for the remainder of the day. If you don't eat breakfast, you are more likely to make poor and unhealthy meal choices for lunch and dinner. When deciding on what to eat for breakfast, think healthy. Your choices should consist of eggs, low-non/fat yogurt, whole grains or fruit. All these choices are high in protein and fiber which will have you feeling full until lunch and promote healthier eating for the rest of the day.
*There are also scientific reasons for not skipping meals, but I won't get into that in this entry.
2. Intake Protein, Carbs, and fat. You aren't doing any favors to your body by eliminating any of these 3 things. Our bodies need and crave all three. Ensuring that you consume enough protein, carbs, and fat on a daily basis prevents your body from a deficiency, which in turn can cause your body harm and lower your immune system.
3. Exercise and diet are effective. Just exercising is good and just dieting is good, but doing both at the same time is great. A healthier lifestyle is about balance. Incorporating a healthy diet and exercise into your plan is an effective way to lose weight and keep it off.
4. If you work out 4 days a week and missed 1 day for whatever reason, it's OK. Don't give up. Don't get frustrated or get mad at yourself. You did not fail. You simply have a life and some times life happens. You don't even have to make up that work out. Simply pick up where you left off. (If you have kids, this is key)
Living a healthy lifestyle shouldn't be burdensome. It should just be a way of life. In the beginning, yes, it may be tough. Eventually, however, it will be just the way you are. Going out to the gym or going out for a run isn't such a chore, it's just something you do. Filling your plate with fruits instead of a big piece of cheesecake won't kill you...it's just the way you eat. You prefer to save those calories for the weekend or a special event.
This is the way that I now live. It's who I am. It's not a chore, it's not something I complain about. It's just me and how I choose to live. I'm skinnier for it, but most importantly, I'm healthier and happier for it.
So, here's to a healthier, happier, and skinnier you. Cheers (bottle of Poland Spring in my hand)!
Andi
It is very rare that individuals who achieve rapid weight loss will be able to maintain it. Why? The reason why is because individuals who achieve rapid weight loss did so by depriving themselves of something, whether it be protein, carbs, or dessert. I mean, who wants to live their lives without some good juicy steak, or some spaghetti to go with the chicken parm, or the occasional cheesecake on the weekend (ice cream in the summer). I don't think anyone. We all have our guilty pleasure and we should all be allowed. No matter what our weight is. I think the problem we all have is that we wind up indulging and instead of having a cup of ice cream, we have 2. So, what we need to do is learn not to indulge....have self control.
Living a healthy lifestyle requires a lot of self control. Sometimes, it requires you to just take a whiff of that philly cheese steak and dream of eating it. It means eating a healthy meal at home before going to a party where you will be tempted with all the great food and dessert. It's not to say you will never eat a philly cheese steak or eat all the party food and dessert, it just means you have the power to choose when you will and will not.
I eat cheeseburgers, pizza, ice cream, cheesecake, chicken parm, donuts...but I also eat salads, veggies, fruits, yogurts. Having a balanced diet means eating healthy and every once in a while eating those "not so great for you" foods. The key is the portions. If you eat 1/2 a cup of frozen yogurt every day, you are less likely to over indulge on sweets on a weekend or while you are out.
So here are a few tips on living a healthy lifestyle and how to successfully lose weight and KEEP it off.
1. Eat! Don't skip meals, especially breakfast. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. It sets the stage for your eating habits for the remainder of the day. If you don't eat breakfast, you are more likely to make poor and unhealthy meal choices for lunch and dinner. When deciding on what to eat for breakfast, think healthy. Your choices should consist of eggs, low-non/fat yogurt, whole grains or fruit. All these choices are high in protein and fiber which will have you feeling full until lunch and promote healthier eating for the rest of the day.
*There are also scientific reasons for not skipping meals, but I won't get into that in this entry.
2. Intake Protein, Carbs, and fat. You aren't doing any favors to your body by eliminating any of these 3 things. Our bodies need and crave all three. Ensuring that you consume enough protein, carbs, and fat on a daily basis prevents your body from a deficiency, which in turn can cause your body harm and lower your immune system.
3. Exercise and diet are effective. Just exercising is good and just dieting is good, but doing both at the same time is great. A healthier lifestyle is about balance. Incorporating a healthy diet and exercise into your plan is an effective way to lose weight and keep it off.
4. If you work out 4 days a week and missed 1 day for whatever reason, it's OK. Don't give up. Don't get frustrated or get mad at yourself. You did not fail. You simply have a life and some times life happens. You don't even have to make up that work out. Simply pick up where you left off. (If you have kids, this is key)
Living a healthy lifestyle shouldn't be burdensome. It should just be a way of life. In the beginning, yes, it may be tough. Eventually, however, it will be just the way you are. Going out to the gym or going out for a run isn't such a chore, it's just something you do. Filling your plate with fruits instead of a big piece of cheesecake won't kill you...it's just the way you eat. You prefer to save those calories for the weekend or a special event.
This is the way that I now live. It's who I am. It's not a chore, it's not something I complain about. It's just me and how I choose to live. I'm skinnier for it, but most importantly, I'm healthier and happier for it.
So, here's to a healthier, happier, and skinnier you. Cheers (bottle of Poland Spring in my hand)!
Andi
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