Today’s workout is called Short and Sweat. It’s not long, but it’s a great workout! I interspersed some shots of Jesse doing the workouts throughout the video. Jesse is a distance runner, so these workouts are totally different from what he’s used to. He has already been getting great results by adding these workouts.
Focus on form. Make sure you complete the most reps you can without sacrificing form. You will get better results from doing 5 reps correctly than you would by doing 10 with poor form.
Enjoy the workout!
Melissa
Equipment: Yoga Mat and yourself
Reps:
Beginner: 15-20 reps
Intermediate: 25 reps
Advanced: 30 reps
1.Lunge Jumps
2.Sumo Squats
3.Pendulum
4.Back Lift
5.Bridge Series (right leg): These can be done from your knee if the full plank position is too difficult.
Today’s workout is below. It’s a major fat burning, toning routine. It will help shape and define your entire body. It’s not an easy one, but it hits every area of your body.
Special thanks to photographer Jeff Zoet for designing the new Fitness Bender logo. I will be incorporating it into the page sometime this weekend. Jeff does a great series called “Becoming Pop Culture” which I am a big fan of. You can check out his work here: www.jeffzoet.com
I hope you enjoy the workout!
Melissa
Unless specified otherwise below repetitions are as follows:
The song Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child was stuck in my head earlier today, and it inspired this workout. To me bootylicious means two things, a round butt, and a little waist. This workout will help you get both! It’s a tough one, but there are some modifications in the video. Just remember to move from one exercise to the next as quickly as you can, and push yourself to do the harder variations if you are able to. Even doing one full burpee before switching to the knee modification will help improve your fitness faster!
Our guest today is Cydney. Cyd has agreed to let us track her progress, so we will be checking in with her periodically to see how she is doing on her fitness bender. By adding these workouts I think she is going to see great results!
You may have noticed I am trying out a new format for my blog. Let me know what you think! Do you like the new setup, or should we go back to what we had?
Enjoy today’s workout! Melissa
Bootylicious Burpee Builder
If you are at a beginner or intermediate level you can build your Burpees up to 5, repeat 5 and go back down to one. For people at an advanced level continue to build Burpees so that on your last set you end with 10 full Burpees. Also, modifications are demonstrated in the video.
1.Standing Pendulum (right/left=1 rep)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
2.1 Burpee
3.Squat twist (right)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
4.2 burpee
5.Squat twist (left)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
6.3 Burpee
7.Russian kicks (2 kicks=1 rep)
Beginner: 10 (20 kicks)
Intermediate: 20 (40 kicks)
Advanced: 25 (50 kicks)
8.4 Burpee
9.Warrior Chair (2 step backs=1 rep)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
10.5 Burpee
11.2 part Abs (Straight/V leg raise=1 rep)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
12.5 Burpee (6 Burpee Advanced)
13.Robot situps (twist to both directions=1 rep)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
14.4 Burpee (7 Advanced)
15.Angel abs
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
16.3 Burpee (8 Advanced)
17.Lunge kicks (right)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
18.2 Burpee (9 Burpee Advanced)
19.Lunge Kick (left)
Beginner: 10
Intermediate: 20
Advanced: 25
20.1 Burpee (10 Burpee Advanced)
Neither Melissa, Jesse nor anyone associated with Fitness Bender will be responsible or liable for any injury sustained while exercising at your home, gym or elsewhere. Consult a Doctor before starting any exercise program.
I have a great workout for you today! I had fun doing it, and I feel great now. J
Before I give you the breakdown I wanted to talk to you about listening to your body. This goes for your workout, your diet, and your life in general. Many people have been trained to do things like finish their plate of food even if they are full. Does that sound familiar? Maybe you heard, “you’re not leaving this table until you have eaten everything on your plate.” Things like this may be well intended (if someone refuses to eat any vegetables maybe), but they can also teach you not to listen to your body. You forget how to tell when you are full. This can lead to over eating.
The same thing can also happen in your workouts. There are two extremes to this. Extreme number one is the person who consistently pushes themselves to the point of breaking. They will finish this workout, in the best time ever, NO MATTER WHAT! The other extreme is the person who does one rep of an exercise and says “This hurts! I’m done!”
You should never push yourself to the point of injury. You need to be able to tell the difference between the good burn you feel when your muscles are working hard. The exhaustion of a good workout is great. If you start feeling shooting pains during any exercise, stop! The point of fitness is to improve your health not hurt it. So if this sounds like you please focus on listening to your body. Push yourself, but rest when you need it.
If you are the other extreme, and you complete your workout and think to yourself later, “I probably could have done the full set of reps” it’s important to be aware of that tendency. You want to feel the burn, and have good tired muscles.
So learn your tendencies, and be aware of them while you workout. Learn to listen to your body. It knows what it’s doing, and it wants to be fit too!
Melissa
Weekend Warrior Cardio Burn
Warm-up: Jump Rope or High Knees (I use an interval timer to keep track of this, but a stopwatch or oven timer will work just as well)
Beginner: 2 minutes
Intermediate: 4 minutes
Advanced: 5 minutes
1.Roll-over Mountain Climber Push-ups (10 mountain climber jumps in between each pushup). If this is too difficult do it from your knees.
Beginner: 10 reps
Intermediate: 15 reps
Advanced: 20 reps
2.Full Squat Jumps
Beginner: 10 reps
Intermediate: 15 reps
Advanced: 20 reps
3.Rock the Boat pose
Beginner: 10 reps
Intermediate: 15 reps
Advanced: 20 reps
4.Lunge Jumps
Beginner: 10 reps
Intermediate: 15 reps
Advanced: 20 reps
5.Warrior 3 Kick Back (right): This can be done holding onto a chair or table for balance.
Beginner: 10 reps
Intermediate: 15 reps
Advanced: 20 reps
6.Warrior 3 Kick Back (left)
Beginner: 10 reps
Intermediate: 15 reps
Advanced: 20 reps
7.Down Dog Leg Lift (right): Don’t worry about how high you can lift your leg. Flexibility varies. Just go as far as you can comfortably.
Before we get into today’s workout I want to talk to you about something that can make working out challenging. Emotions. That’s right, how you feel affects how much you want to work out. Sometimes if you are upset or tired you may just want to veg out on the couch and eat ice cream. For other people it’s the exact opposite. If they are upset about something they have to keep moving, and keep doing.
Regardless of which category you fall into it’s important to remember that you are making a choice. You may feel exhausted and lethargic, but pushing yourself through a workout will make you feel a lot better.
For some people the power of choice is intimidating. Sometimes it seems easier to let things happen to you, and to blame the world. There are things that you can’t control that do happen in life. What you can control is the choice you make from there. It’s empowering to realize that every action you do is a choice. Even inaction is a choice.
So how are you going to use that when it comes to your fitness goals? I am going to use it to keep on pushing! I hope you like today’s workout. As always, feel free to leave me some comments/feedback below.
Melissa
Body Shaping Workout:
1.Lunging Knee Lifts (right)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
2.Lunging Knee Lifts (left)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
3.Bending Leg Lifts (right)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
4.Bending Leg Lifts (left)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
5.Up/Down Dog
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
6.Heel Tap Abs (If taping is too hard just lift your legs. If that is still too difficult, rest your head and arms on the floor while you lift and lower your legs. Just be sure to keep abs pulled in and lower back on the floor)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
7.Leg Scissors (you can do the same modifications as above if this is to difficult)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
8.Camel Stretch
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
9.Pilates Leg Lifts (right)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
10.Pilates Leg Lifts (left)
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
11.Challenge Pose: Backbend
This pose is optional. For this pose when I watched the video I realized my form was horrible. The weight of my body should have been in my hands, but I keep it in my feet. So I will be working on this pose along with you. J
I had a very exciting Halloween themed workout planned for last night, but lo and behold my water heater decided to stop working. Getting all hot and sweaty and jumping into a freezing cold shower didn’t appeal to me so I learned how to install a new thermocouple on my water heater. So last night’s workout got scrapped by unexpected home improvements.
What does that mean? Well, for a lot of people one day off means the start of a downward spiral. It means missed workouts, junk food, and exhaustion. Don’t let that be you!
Start each day with a renewed dedication to yourself and your fitness goals. Your health doesn’t just affect you, it affects anyone who cares about you. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself, it is a benefit to everyone you love.
So how do I re-motivate myself? I remind myself that it’s a new day. In the grand course of things one missed workout doesn’t amount to anything. It’s the buildup that counts. You’re worth taking care of. 🙂
There will be a new workout posted late tonight, or tomorrow afternoon. If you’re looking for a workout right now scroll down to the bottom of my page to the “popular posts” section and pick one!
Happy Halloween! I hope that you all had a great weekend. Mine was very busy so I was excited to have time to do a real workout tonight and share it with you!
The workout breakdown is below. This week along with workouts I am going to be talking about diet. I don’t mean going on “a diet.” Believe it or not a diet isn’t a thing you go on. It is just a combination of everything that you eat. It’s a lifestyle. Whether you chose to have a healthy or unhealthy diet is up to you.
So what is healthy? There is a lot of contention on this topic. A lot of experts have come up with a ton of conflicting views. We will be talking about it this week. Let me know what you do to eat healthfully!
Enjoy the workout! Melissa
1.Cardio burst-Jumping Jacks
Beginner: 30 seconds
Intermediate: 45 seconds
Advanced: 60 seconds
2.Sleeping crab: Both sides=1 rep
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
3.Dynamo push up
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
4.Dynamic squat
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
5.Elbow twist abs (boat position): both sides=1 rep
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
6.Cardio burst-High Knees
Beginner: 30 seconds
Intermediate: 45 seconds
Advanced: 60 seconds
7.Tripod leg swings (right and left)
Beginner: 15 reps per side
Intermediate: 20 reps per side
Advanced: 25 reps per side
8.Single leg pump (right and left)
Beginner: 15 reps per side
Intermediate: 20 reps per side
Advanced: 25 reps per side
9.Roll up situps
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
10.Scissors
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
11.Shoulder bridges with bent knee
Beginner: 15 reps per leg
Intermediate: 20 reps per leg
Advanced: 25 reps per leg
12.Cardio burst-High Knees or Jumping Jacks (in the video I did jumping jacks, when I went through the workout afterwards I did high knees)
If you look at today’s workout list it looks long, but it’s just because we have cardio bursts in between all of the workout moves. This will keep your heart rate up, and burn fat throughout the workout (and the rest of the day!) This workout has a lot of emphasis on legs, butt and thighs. Remember to use correct form and give it your all. The more you put into your workout the more you get out of it!
Also, during the “High Knees” portion of the video make sure you are lifting your knees as high as you can. I filmed the complete workout, and then went through it full speed a second time, and realized that I was pushing my knees a lot harder the second time around (and getting more out of it!)
As usual I welcome feedback and comments!
Thanks for working out with me! Melissa
Workout Breakdown:
1.Diagonal Leg Cross (left)
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
2.Diagonal Leg Cross (right)
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
3.High Knees
-Beginner: 30 knee raises
-Intermediate: 50 knee raises
-Advanced: 75 knee raises
4.Scissor Sit-ups
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
5.Mountain Climbers
-Beginner: 30 jumps
-Intermediate: 50 jumps
-Advanced: 75 jumps
6.Squat Jumps
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
7.High Knees
8.Chair Pose
-Beginner: hold for 30 seconds
-Intermediate: hold for 60 seconds
-Advanced: hold for 90 seconds
9.Mountain Climbers
10.Ball Squeeze Sit-ups
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
11.High Knees
12.Side Lunge Jumps (Do both sides for this to count as one rep)
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
13.Mountain Climbers
14.L Leg Lifts (right)
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
15.L Leg Lifts (left)
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
16.High Knees
17.Knee Touch Jump Squats
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
18.Mountain Climbers
19.Push-up/Side Plank (alternating sides)
-Beginner: 10
-Intermediate: 20
-Advanced: 25
20.High Knees
If you are at an advanced level (or just feel up to the challenge!) complete the whole series a second time.
This workout is a Standing Yoga Flow. It focuses mostly on the lower body: thighs, butt, legs, and back. However, there are still benefits for your arms and abs.
One of my best friends (a wonderfully talented poet named Rose) challenged me to create a yoga flow that consisted solely of standing poses. I had to keep it short enough to post on youtube so I limited the number of poses I used. This is the result. It’s a short workout (about 15 minutes). You can even do it with the Kick Butt workout or another one of the workouts on my website after doing this one.
Today’s workout is tough, but you are going to feel so great after you do it! I created this one to focus on abs, but as usual it’s still a full body workout. To get the most out of this workout make sure that you are using proper form, and moving from one exercise to the next as quickly as you can. That said, there were a few exercises that I needed to take a few seconds before continuing. Be sure to push yourself, but listen to your body!
I would love some feedback on what you thought of today’s workout and how it went for you. Feel free to leave a comment below.
Also, I just made a twitter account to keep people updated so they know when new workout videos are up. I’m new to twitter so I am just getting used to it, but if you’d like to follow me my name is BenderFitness.
Enjoy!
Melissa
Terrific Tummy Toner:
Beginner: 15 reps
Intermediate: 20 reps
Advanced: 25 reps
1.Tricep sideways leg jumps (remember, 2 jumps=1rep)
2.Plank forward jumps
3.Side plank drops with elbow touch (right)
4.Side plank drops with elbow touch (left)
5.Forward/Backward lunges (right)
6.Forward/Backward lunges (left)
7.Sumo Squats (right and left side=1rep)
8.Bicycle abs (right and left side=1rep)
9.Leg lift abs with hip twist (right and left=1rep)
Yesterday was my rest day. It’s very important to take rest time and allow your body to heal after hard workouts. If you don’t give your muscles time to heal they don’t rebuild properly. Having muscles is the key to having a great metabolism, and aging well.
We tend to lose 2% of our muscle every year after the age of 40. This loss of muscle is what slows down our metabolism (and you thought it was just part of getting older!) So here’s an idea, keep working out, maintain your muscle mass, and maintain your metabolism! Also, working out strengthens your bones, helping to prevent other problems associated with aging, such as osteoperosis.
My field (occupational therapy) is focused on helping people to continue doing whatever is important to them in their lives, often after some type of injury or illness. There are things in life that sometimes happen that we can do nothing to prevent (accidents, natural disaster, etc). One thing that I can tell you for sure is that the more physically fit you are the higher your chance of recovery is. Plus the healthier you stay the more you decrease your chances of illness and injury in the future!
So start your personal fitness journey now. If you have any personal experiences or thoughts you would like to share post them in the comments below. I love to hear from you. I thought the quote below was relevant to today’s talk.
There will be a new workout up today so be sure to look for it a little bit later!
Thanks for reading! Melissa
What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?
Hi Everyone! Today is a cardio day. For me that meant a 30 minute easy run. Watch the video for some alternative options for getting your cardio in. Feel free to leave a comment about your favorite cardio workout! Note, in the video my jump rope is too long. You shouldne’t need to flail your arms quite so much while you jump rope.
Below is the link for Sun Salutations. You can use them as a warm-up or to get your full body workout for the day.
Today’s workout is the Glute Bender. It’s a full body workout that incorporates plenty of abs, core and butt work. I believe that you should use your workouts to get the most out of them, by using movements that use more than one part at a time. Each step of the workout is explained in the video. The reps of each are listed below. *Note: I repeated this workout in a full length video: Work it All Out-Glute Bender Take 2 Start out with the Warm-up! 1. Plank Pose-Knee to elbow with leg lift Newbies: 10 reps per leg Intermediate: 15 reps per leg Advanced: 25 reps per leg 2. Warrior 3 with Squat Newbies: 10 reps per leg Intermediate: 15 reps per leg Advanced: 25 reps per leg 3. Heel Tap Leg Lifts Newbies: 10 reps Intermediate: 15 reps Advanced: 25 reps 4. Leg Series (Typically I do 10 of the lift, 10 drops, and end with 10 combined per leg. That’s 30 per leg. For a description check the video) Newbies: 10 reps per leg Intermediate: 15 reps per leg Advanced: 25 reps per leg 5. Ball Leg Lifts Newbies: 10 reps Intermediate: 15 reps Advanced: 25 reps 6. Butt Ball Lifts Newbies: 10 reps Intermediate: 15 reps Advanced: 25 reps 7. Plie Jumps Newbies: 10 reps Intermediate: 15 reps Advanced: 25 reps 8. Squating Leg Lifts Newbies: 10 reps per leg (20 total) Intermediate: 15 reps per leg (30 total) Advanced: 25 reps per leg (50 total) 9. Wall Sit Leg Lifts Newbies: 10 reps per leg Intermediate: 15 reps per leg Advanced: 25 reps per leg 10. Side Plank Drops Newbies: 10 reps per side Intermediate: 15 reps per side Advanced: 25 reps per side
All good workouts should start with a warm-up. It doesn’t matter what type of workout you are doing after your warm-up, Sun Salutations work every muscle in your body. They can also be used as a cool down, or a full workout (just vary the reps). For todays workout I recommend doing 2 full Sun Salutations to start, and 2 for cooldown.
