This is a Cardio Body weight interval training workout, that needs absolutely no equipment.

Watch out Lower back pain people, it seems to not be the right work out for you, but other than that - it is a total 2 birds with one stone workout - intense cardio and strength training in one.

This is a Turbulence Training workout.

How do you work out?
I have always done a warm up for a few minutes, then some form of cardio (I don’t always do cardio separately, sometimes I combine it with strength training) and once I’ve done my cardio I move on to what ever strength training I am doing.

Apparently, I have been doing it all wrong .
according to daily muscle - This is the better method - Warm up for 5-10 minutes
then strength training followed by cardio, and all ended nicely by stretching.
The reason:

Because strength training uses glycogen as a fuel source (stored carbohydrates in your muscles). By weight training first, we are going to use up most of the glycogen in our muscles, so there’s a greater tendency for our cardio workout to use up fat as a fuel source. So, if we were to do cardio first, we might not be able to lift as much weights, therefore compromising our workout to a certain extent.

Good to know!

But, one should keep in mind that the most important thing is to workout, and in whatever order we decide we want to do it, it will keep us happy and healthy…

I did a post a while back on the difference between the western way of thinking about fitness and the eastern way.
Us westerners think bigger faster more beautiful, while the eastern cultures think healthy and fit.

We break things down - we don’t just exercise  as a whole experience but break it down into segments, in western medicine - it is pretty much the same, your doctor will treat every symptom separately, your leg your back your headache where as in Eastern medicine the philosophy is holistic - body and soul.

Maybe there is something to be learned from this… work out to keep your body healthy, your spirits up and your mind sharp - the rest will follow…

Great variations on the plank.

I have never done pilates, I am more of a yoga person, but it seems to  me, from what I know, that if you are a yoga person, chances are you will enjoy pilates as well.

Fitness for mommies did  a post on the plank pose, that is supposed to be really great for a core workout. Just one minute a day is all you need.

It seems like there are a whole lot of variations to this exercise - the one in the video seems incredibly controlled and difficult. Wow!

I am going to try and incorporate this in my day (I will look for simpler ones though, to start) and see if I can get my kids to do it along with me - they love yoga…

If you want to know more about this pose and variations thereof,  go over to Fitness for Mommies, and check out her post.

So we all like bargains and two for one is my personal favorite, but I never thought to translate it to fitness, Maybe because I don’t hate working out, in fact, I like it.
I do find this bargain business, especially the two for one very attractive, especially as I am so busy lately it is hard to fit in a work outs as much as I would like to, and to be able to get double value for the same amount of time and effort is an idea worth thinking about.
this wasn’t my idea to begin with and to be quite honest I haven’t mulled on it enough to be able to contribute any of my own.
Crabby, from Cranky Fitness is the inventor of this and if you are into bargain hunting you should go over and check out her ideas.
I liked this one especially:

Circuit Training Lite
Here’s how you do Circuit Training Lite:

At some point in your cardio workout, get off your treadmill/bike/elliptical/whatever, but keep it running if it’s motorized, and give yourself full credit for any time you’re away from it. Since you’re still going to be keeping your heart rate up, you get to count this time as though you were still doing cardio. Rush off and do a set of some strength-training exercise in a quick but not too half-assed manner, then hustle back to the machine again. Slog some more. Wait until you get totally bored with the cardio again, then jump off the machine and do a different strength training exercise.

It’s two-for-one! (But, alas, this only works in a home gym or fairly deserted fitness facility. Abandoning your treadmill at a busy gym is NOT recommended).

I am trying to picture what this would look like (in my minds eye I can see it with cartoon characters maybe bugs bunny or road runner…) and all of the funny miss-haps that could happen getting on and of a working treadmill…
But if you practice that for a while and get a technique that is safe and works for you - this could be a great improvemt to workouts, killing the deadtime and making every minute count.

Many people today are aware of the need to both eat a healthy diet and exercise in order to stay in shape. Both men and women frequent the gym often.
Woman who work out regularly and eat well cant help but feel the benifites of this routine - sleeping better, feeling more energized and well than ever before.
A lot of women will leave good enough alone with aerobic training and shrink from weight training because of the misconceived notion that they will look like Schwarzenegger within 2 days.

This is to bad because the many benefits of working with weights that are totally lost to them.

Here is a short list that might just get your apitite up (for weights of course, not food..)

1.  Weight training builds muscles that help boost your metabolism - the faster your metabolism - the faster the calories are burned. An exercise routine with just cardio and airobic workouts will burn fat as well as muscle, thus slowing your metabolisim instead of quickening it. The perfect workout will combine the two.
2. Weight training makes for stronger bones and Muscles, and prevents the onset of osteoppoorosis and authritis, common in women that are menopausal.
   because your muscles are toned from the weights, your body will also look much better.
3. When weight training, you can also target specific parts of your body like your abdomine or thighs and give them special attention. This is obviously not possible with just a cardio workout

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