Sarah: Your Friendly ExRacers Personal Trainer! :D

[sariditty]

Anytime!
I'm now teaching 7 classes a week at my gym including the following: Body Works (which is total body weight/resistance training), Pilates, Step Aerobics, Cardio Kickboxing, Cardio Jam (basically a Hi/Lo class with lots of drills and me inflicting more and more pain! hah!).
If anyone is interested in a quick cardio workout, I'm sure I have a few up my sleeve to whip out and share! (Insert evil laugh HERE!)

[Kim]

May 28, 2008 11:24:54 GMT -5 sariditty said:

Anytime!
I'm now teaching 7 classes a week at my gym including the following: Body Works (which is total body weight/resistance training), Pilates, Step Aerobics, Cardio Kickboxing, Cardio Jam (basically a Hi/Lo class with lots of drills and me inflicting more and more pain! hah!).
If anyone is interested in a quick cardio workout, I'm sure I have a few up my sleeve to whip out and share! (Insert evil laugh HERE!)

Oooh! Do share a cardio workout

[sariditty]

Here's a fun one that is only 10 minutes long, but you can surely double or triple it up! It'll definitely work your biceps, triceps, quads, hamstings, abs, obliques, and heart!!! Please be sure to warm-up and stretch a bit first. You can simply speed walk or do some jumping jacks to get the muscles warmed up. Then take a few minutes to stretch your hamstrings, quads, arms.

0:00-1:00.....Jump Rope (either with a rope or pretend) *Be sure to keep upper arms as close to body as possible. This engages the biceps and triceps.

1:00-2:00.....Squat Thrust Push-Up (See Below*.) Do this move repeatedly until time is up.

2:00-3:00.....Jump Rope (Now do side-to-side or criss-cross jump rope.)

3:00-5:00.....Squat Thrust Push-Up with Side Planks (After the push-part of the move, remain in the push-up position. You will rotate your weight to the Left by keeping the left hand on the ground, twisting your body so that the right side of your body is going up toward the ceiling and your right arm is reaching straight up to the ceiling. Your feet will stack so that the outside of your left foot is on the ground, and your right foot will be pressed on top of it. Now rotate back to center & then over to the other side plank & back to center again. Finish up the squat thrust move & repeat until time is up.)

5:00-6:00.....Jump Rope

6:00-7:00.....Squat Thrust Push-Up with Mountain Climbers (After the push-up part, keep hands and toes on floor. A Mountain Climber is where you hop your feet back and forth with each other so that one is up under your chest and then the other. Try to picture a really steep mountain and someone climbing it with all fours grabbing onto the surface. Just jazz it up by energetically switching your legs back and forth. Do 4 leg switches, and then finish up the Squat Thrust move.)

7:00-8:00.....Jump Rope (Try to do double jumps, so that you're jumping up a little higher and trying to pass the jump rope under your feet twice per jump-whether it be an actual rope or make-believe.)

8:00-9:00.....Squat Thrust Push-Up with Pike (After the push-up - where your body is in a perfectly straight line - shift your weight back to your feet, contract your abs even further, and raise your tushie up to the ceiling. You'll be in an upside-down V shape with your feet and hands on the ground. Do this move slowly and deliberately, and then return to the flat push-up position to finish the Squat Thrust move.)

9:00-10:00.....Jump Rope (Do a regular jump with alternating heel digs out in front of your body.)

Now take a few minutes to cool down: march in place; do some side-steps; walk around the yard; something! And be sure to stretch again for a few minutes once your heart rate is back down.


*Squat Thrust Push-Up: From a standing up position, squat down to the floor; with hands placed on floor, hop your legs back to a push-up position; do one push-up; hop legs back up under to a squat again; jump straight up and reach arms up to ceiling.

***If the standard push-up position is painful or you are unable, all you need to do is drop your knees to the ground for your rear point of contact instead of your toes on the ground. Just be sure to keep your abs engaged during either version of a push-up & keep a nice, straight line from the shoulders through the tushie to either the knees/feet.

*****And with alllllll of these moves, concentrate on keeping your abs engaged. I always tell my class to act like they're putting on pants that are 2 sizes too small: zip it in by pulling your navel back toward your spine.

[Kim]

Thank you Sarah! I'll print this out and USE it!!

[sariditty]

Quickie Lower Body Endurance/Strength

- 20x Basic Squats (toes pointed forward; feet shoulder-width apart)
- 30 sec. Jog In Place
- 20x Basic Squat with Right Leg Sidekicks (squat and sidekick coming up from squat; knee is bent and up on side like a doggy peeing on a hydrant!; then extend from the knee kicking sole of foot outward toward side wall)
- 30 sec. Calf Raises (feet out on 45-degree angle; rise up onto balls of feet and lower back down; working gastrocnemius muscle)
- 20x Basic Squat with Left Leg Sidekicks
- 30 sec. Jump Rope (with or without an actual rope; keep arms in tight at sides to engage bis/tris)
- 20x Right Knee Lift (knee/leg pointed straight to front; lift knee and contract abs when knee at highest point)
- 8 counts March In Place
- 20x Right Front Kick (begin with knee lift and extend from knee to kick sole of foot to front wall)
- 8 counts March In Place
- 20x Left Knee Lift
- 8 counts March In Place
- 20x Left Front Kick
- 8 counts March In Place
- 30 sec. Calf Raises (this time toes pointed inward, which will work the soleus muscle)

As always, be sure to warm up first by walking around/jumping jacks/stepping side-to-side/etc. and stretch hams/quads/calves before doing exercises. Afterwards, cool down appropriately; if your heart rate is up, walk around or march in place until it comes back down. Be sure to stretch at least 5 minutes focusing on your lower body.

[niaru]

How GOOD would we all be, if we could all get together in one of Sarah's classes!

Thanks for the thread Sarah, and for the "sadistic" workouts!

[sariditty]

Ooooooooh - maybe we could plan a weekend "sadistic" get-together one of these days!! An ExRacers' Boot Camp, if you will?! Eh, eh?!?!?! I'm game to lead a fun-filled weekend of boot camp, Pilates, abs, resistance training!! Eeeee....now I'm giddy thinking about it!!!!!!!!!

[Kim]

Ooh! We should! Indy isn't that far from me!

[coyote]

Hey, Sarah or anyone else who can answer this.
I've started some exercise dvd's (P90X). If you are familiar with the program, you'll know it is *somewhat* rigorous to say the least. Often when I finish, I'm very light headed. The light-headedness seems to have reduced a little but it's still there somewhat. Is that lack of fluid intake to replace fluids lost? or not breathing right? I'll be increasing the intensity rather than decreasing it - my weights were a little too light last time because I thought I could throw in more reps, but it didn't really work that way. Since I'm not going to do less, I'm wondering how to address this light-headed thing.
In case anyone is interested, I do reommend the program. It's tough. Tony Horton is pleasant and assumes you are motivated, which is motivating. You can have his background music on or off and it's just a good program from what I can tell.

[Kim]

Hey Coyote - I get lightheaded and pass out quite frequently. It tends to be worse when I'm stressed or exercise. For me, drinking LOTS of water and some gatorade type stuff for electrolytes really helps. Also, when I get lightheaded, a lot of times it's because my blood pressure is low. You might want to get yours checked out. Do you get lightheaded at any other times?

[Lis]

Are you eating regularly? I'm another onet hat gets light headed a lot. I try to make sure I eat something 1/2 hour-1 hour before I work out to keep my blood sugar up.

[coyote]

Kim and Liz, thanks for your advice. I'll work on both getting more fluid intake and eating more before exercising. My exercise time is odd - night and I don't eat a lot in the evenings. I'm one who has some difficulty in drinking enough, also - since I no longer drink the unhealthy or sugary drinks much.

I don't have trouble with being light headed or faint ever with the one exception - sometime if I've relaxed in a hot tub/hot bath for awhile, I can be light headed briefly when I get out. That could be dip in blood pressure, but I've never, ever had anything like that after exertion. I'll take note of the blood pressure connection - and the blood sugar one.

Thanks. I'll watch both the blood sugar and the blood pressure (I can monitor both) and take the eating and drinking precautions. I guess this means I can't use this as an excuse to stop these tapes!!!! LOL just kidding - I sort of like them. On the other hand it's an excuse to eat more and drink something sweet, so that's good:).

[coyote]

Kim and Liz, I did take your advice and haven't had any problems since. I did both the food and fluid increase and all's well.
I can't recommend the P90X tapes highly enough. I had just started in without reading the book or anything. I read the booklet a couple of days ago and found that there are two options - a slim version and a strength version. We are doing the strength version.

[sariditty]

Hey all!!! Sorry I've been away!
I've definitely heard of (and done a bit of) the P90X system!! It's phenomenal! My initial guess is that you don't have enough protein stored up in your system before you're working out. Keep in mind that this routine burns a LOT of calories. So also be sure to replenish with gatorade (or something similar with electrolytes) WHILE you're working out. You may want to do a quick check-up with your doc...be sure your blood pressure is in check.
So, even though I'm late in responding, it also sounds like you've gotten some sound and smart advice from the other two. Let me know how you're doing with it! Sounds exciting!!

I'm going to start my training for the next half marathon!! Whoo hooo.... haha

[coyote]

Thanks! P90X (Tony Horton) is a very good system. The only problem is, as always, the time. At this point anyway, most days are well over an hour. I think it will be weak on stretches, but the Yoga day is super. I foresaw that there would be some days that we simply couldn't do it, so bought Tony Horton's 10 minute exercise system late last week. It's 8 tapes, each 10 minutes emphasizing various body parts. I'm sure it will be well thought out, too. It should be here today, I hope! This will help us to be able to fit in 10, 20, 30 or even 40 minutes on days that the sometimes 1.5 hours just isn't feasible.
As for the calories, I don't know. On the P90X, you can select between "slim program" and "strength program". We're doing the strength program. I think there is a step up in the cardio next month. When I told my very fit teenage son that we hadn't gotten into the cardio much yet, he was shocked. This *is* more cardio than any tape I've ever done. It's a little different standard. LOL

I appreciate the advise on the lightheadedness. A little extra food before really seems to have been the key. I increased the water consumption for a few days, but slacked off on that. I have to work on that fluid intake. But, after I added a little food before, there's no problem.