Try This Exercise For Your Legs - Bench Step Ups With Med Ball

Bench Step Ups With or Without Med Ball 

3 sets of 15 on each leg

For more of a challenge add a medicine ball and hold it in your hands. Make sure to bring the knee all the way to the ball.

Alicia Bell

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Alicia Bell - GP8 Sport Water

Fitness isn’t all about working out hard in the gym everyday. It's a lifes It is much more than that. It not only includes exercise but diet and hydration. I call water, “liquid courage.” It gives your body life, regulates your core temperature, lubricates joints, gives your skin a healthy glow, and keep you from being bloated. “Liquid courage” is particularly important during exercise. Your body sweats to get rid of toxins and to cool off your body. However, you need to rehydrate yourself before, during and afterwards.

Dehydration can cause drops in blood volume that can cause muscle craps, extreme fatigue and/or dizziness. You should always have a water bottle close by when working out. I always say if your thirsty it is too late. This is because at this point you are already well on your way to dehydration. That means you need to make sure that you are drinking water all day long and not just during workouts. Stay away from juices they contain high amounts of concentrated sugar and no one needs those excess calories. Also note that the body wants to turn sugars to fat. If you are performing endurance exercises for long periods of time you my want to consider something that has electrolytes. I suggest more natural electrolytes such as coconut water rather than powerade or gatorade.

Follow these tips to stay hydrated:

1. Drink at least 2L-4L of water a day
2. Carry a water bottle
3. Avoid prolonged periods in the sun

So keep that “liquid courage” close because it will help you succeed in your health and fitness goals.

I always drink GP Sport Water: www.gp8.c0m

Try This Push Up Burpee Heisman Circuit - Train It Right

  • Warm Up for 5 minutes (easy jog, brisk walk or on any machine of choice)
  • Push hard for 30 seconds of the circuit
  • Recover for 10 seconds
  • Repeat 8x
  • Cool down 5 minutes
  • Stretch 5 minutes. Hold each stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds

Alicia Bell

For more tips and workouts follow me on twitter @trainitright

Got An Exercise Ball? Try This Workout

Working out is challenging. Sometimes getting to the gym can be challenging, and if we workout on our own we don’t get that extra push that a personal trainer or an exercise class would give us. Do you have an old dusty exercise ball that you have had sitting around for months but havent touched? If you have an exercise ball at home here is a free DVD that you can follow. There are beginner, intermediate and advanced options for all of the exercises.  This video was shot with Zenzation/Pur Athletics some time ago. It was a learning experience. Go check it out! #trainitright

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 Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life

My friend and Photographer, Katherine Kerr, had a question that many of you have, whist with a little twist.  “How do I find time to go to the gym?” I’ll use this analogy to emphasize the necessity of having a Personal Trainer and not just any trainer. You really need an educated, knowledgeable trainer to help you get there.

Kat, formally a varsity athlete, a martial artist and dancer moved into the work world, and far from her team and training masters. Now, trying to balance her career and love for fitness, she asked me her pertinent question about finding time for the gym. While this is a prevalent question for trainers, keep in mind this question was coming from a person who was still training Capoeira five times a week, grabbing conditioning and yoga classes, time permitting, and jogging for fun. This is where the familiar complaint of balancing work and health takes it twist. Kat just wanted a few extra days to build strength balance her other fitness activities.

In the words of Confucius, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. You can probably see where this story is going. Herein, I told her ‘Kat, have you ever thought about being a trainer, because your life is what we do as a profession.’ She did, of course, need some fine tuning to take her fitness aptitude and turn it into an informed career. But don’t get excited and think I’m in any way suggesting that you become a trainer. The purpose of this story goes to show just how dedicated to health and fitness the life of a Personal Trainer is.

There are two points I want to make.  First, with a good trainer you can find direction to balance your goals and what you like to do for exercise.  Second, get a good trainer. They will be the driving force, organization and motivation behind your success.

I used Kat as an example of someone I took on to help train to be a trainer because she was already eating, living and breathing fitness. She spent her non-work hours conditioning and eating like a health guru and herein, I saw a bit of myself.  Not all, but a bit. Myself, an Olympic qualifier, track and field participant and coach (including my plethora of hard earned certificates therein), Bachelor of Science major with a focus in Kinesiology and I was living the life of a trainer before I officially became a trainer. This also goes to show that even trainers need trainers. As I was a more advanced and qualified fitness professional at that stage of my training career when I met Kat, the solution seemed obvious. If Kat wants to live and breathe fitness similar to when she was on her university Rugby team and training martial arts she needs to be paid to be in a gym.

Personal Training is not for everyone but getting a good trainer is the key element to success. I can’t stress this enough. Even Jackie Chan has a teacher, and if you’re not one of us, already living the disciplined life of no sugar, no alcohol, no white bread/rice, 6 day a week balanced fitness regime like my prototype here, with the mental calorie in calorie out counter and know how to exercise with form… then you need a good trainer. If you don’t also already have a periodization exercise plan catered to the functional output, balancing and grouping muscle groups from big to small, and I could go on, then you need the guidance of a trainer. If you’re not already doing a week of interval training to combat a weekend in Vegas then you need a trainer.

The pressure of being a trainer is intense as you cannot only talk the talk you have to walk the walk. This can be as simple as being able to demonstrate exercise for a particular muscle group to as complicated as being a walking business card; the physical embodiment of what a fit person should look like. But let’s break this down a little, there is a reason trainers can keep up the image of being trainers. We love it! You don’t in anyway need to have the intense lifestyle Kat had when I met her. You need to leave all the worrying to the experts and know that those of us who can help you meet your goals no matter how big or how small are already living the dream, working, studying and practicing.

All you need to know is the time you’re ready for us!

 

How To Do A Burpee Properly

The ultimate cardio exercise is the burpee. Once you can do 100 in a row you can call yourself a burpee master. Until then just try and do one more today than you did yesterday.

Step 1
Step 2
Step 3

Repeat as many times as you can.

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Are You Eating Enough Protein?

Protein is the major source for building material for the body and next to water is the most plentiful substance in the body. Protein is important in the growth and development of all body tissues and is used to build and maintain muscles in addition to many other bodily uses.

Protein requirement always differ according to your body size and activity levels. Some calculations are very simple, and many nutritionists calculate your protein requirements by dividing your total weight by two and the result indicates in grams the amount of protein you require each day.

For example, a person weighing 160 pounds requires approximately 80 grams of protein daily. Lean meats such as chicken and fish are great sources of protein. A 6oz chicken breast contains approximately 30 grams of protein and 6oz of white fish contains approximately 35 grams of protein.

 

The One Part Of Training We All Have A Tendency To Leave Out

When an athlete has tight hamstrings the quadriceps will work harder because they are working against the hamstrings to compensate. This causes both the quadriceps and hamstrings to fatigue and sets the stage for a poor performance or makes the runner prone to injury.Tight hamstrings are a huge contributor to lower back pain, knee pain and leg length differences. If the hamstrings are tight and don’t fire properly, neither do the gluteus maximus and this causes the erector spinae to contract first, followed by the glutes and then the hamstrings and this puts massive stresses on the lumbar spine causing back pain. This also can happen to you!
The following are some great stretches for your hips and legs. Hold each stretch for a minimum of 30s and repeat each stretch for both the right and left leg 3 times. Make stretching a priority and part of your daily routine.




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Hanging Leg Lifts For Shredded Abs

If you want to strengthen your midsection forget the regular crunches! Lower abdominal exercises are often over looked in core training. They should be included in your program because they are great for spinal stability, injury prevention and your lower back. One of the best lower abdominal exercises is the hanging leg raise.

Start slowly so that you will have control. Remember that it is important to focus on quality over quantity. As you begin to raise your knees, think about curling your hips forward to facilitate the movement. The focus should be to engage your abdominal muscles, which are attached to your pelvis and not your legs. The legs are simply an accessory. Try not to swing. Keep your legs together, slowly raise your knees upwards towards the belly button. Then slowly lower your legs to the starting position. Repeat for 10-12 reps. Over time once you have mastered the knee raise add in some variety and try one leg at a time, straight legs or even bring the knees to the left and right.

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Got 5 Minutes? Want better better legs and a better butt? Try This

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Need a new leg and butt routine? Try this short and highly effective workout for your legs and butt. Perform this workout routine one to two times a week week in addition to cardio intervals. Do two to four total rounds and it will have your legs, hamstrings and butt toned. These exercises will give leave your legs looking sculpted and strong for the summer. If you need more of a challenge simply hold a weighted medicine ball or wear ankle weights during the exercises.

Got 5 Minutes? Want better better legs and a better butt? Try This: