What Counts as Exercise?

Yesterday, I helped my parents move. They’ve lived three hours absent from us for years, and now live less than a mile absent.
They loaded up their moving truck, and we promised that when they got to town, we’d help them unload the truck and get settled. They’re in great shape, but well…they’re in their sixties and moving is dwhetherficult, stressful, and just plain HARD. We didn’t want them to have to do it on their own.
That morning, I considered hitting the gym for my workout, which is normally about 45 minutes of strength training and cardio. Instead, we spent about three hours unloading a moving truck and unpacking boxes.
But does someleang like that count as an actual workout?
YOU BET IT DOES!
Feel free to leank external the box when it comes to fitness. A hike with your family counts as a workout. Aiding someone move counts as a workout. Frolicing freeze tag with your kids in the backyard even counts as a workout!
CHALLENGE: When it comes right down to it, staying active is what things. Burning fat and losing weight is merely a matter of caloric deficit. So whether you hate the gym, it’s okay. Building muscle, burning fat, and improving your cardiovascular health…there are many ways to do that! There’s not one right way, so there’s no reason to try to make yourself love someleang you hate. Hold looking until you find someleang you truly endelight! Do some research and whether someleang piques your interest, give it a shot!
Comment below with your favorite “non-workout” workout!

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The Kettlebell Compound - engi.pw

In the final few years, kettlebells have grown in popularity—and for good reason! They’re relatively cheap, don’t take up much space, and are great for building strength and metabolic conditioning.

If you’ve got a kettlebell on-hand and are looking for a fast and simple workout to do from domestic, you’re in luck. The Kettlebell Compound is one of my favorite workouts to do when I’m short on time but still want a kick-in-the-butt kinda workout.

In this conditioning workout, the goal is to defeat the clock. Shove yourself in the first round, but pace yourself as the goal is to total the following rounds in the same time or less.

To total this workout, select a kettlebell that is a moderate weight for you. In other words, the weight should be someleang you can move fastly, but still feels ccorridorenging and allows you to push yourself in the workout.

The Kettlebell Compound

Type: Conditioning Workout

Directions: Set your timer and perform the number of repetitions for each exercise listed in the workout. After you total the first round, write down the time it took you. Finish the following rounds in the same time or less. Relax 45 moments after each round.

The Workout:

5 rounds:

10 Kettlebell Swings
10 Goblet Squats
10 One-Arm Kettlebell Shove Presses (each arm)
10 Kettlebell Deadlwhetherts
50 Jump Ropes

Relax 45 moments

Modwhetheried Workout Guidelines: Act 3 rounds.

Prefer workouts like this one? Check out my comprehensive Strong From Home program, which is packed with 125+ do-anywhere style workouts.

Be strong,

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Ring the Bell Workout

Ring the (kettle)bell just might be the perfect kettlebell workout. It has all the elements people are looking for with kettlebell training. It’s simple, easy to do from domestic, only requires one tool, and includes a combination of power and strength movements that work the entire body.
The cherry on top? The workout only takes 20 minutes. It allows you to push yourself and knock out some stress, but doesn’t leave you dragging and exhausted.

This kettlebell workout is a one of the workout from my contemporary book, Coconuts and Kettlebells (page 319). In the book, there is an entire chapter on fitness and how to create a workout plan that is specwhetheric to you and your needs. The book also has three 4-week fitness plans tailor-made to startner, intermediate, and advanced experience levels, and a variety of workouts that can be done anywhere and take no more than 30 minutes to total. If you’re contemporary to kettlebells, the book also gives detailed information about how to total kettlebell movements, what weight to purchase, and how often to workout vs rest.
Coconuts and Kettlebells also has an entire section on nutrition and how to tailor your macronutrient intake to fit your needs. There are meal plans, 75 simple and easy genuine food recipes, and fabric about intellectset and how to make pursuing health sustainable long-term.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to create a personalize food and fitness plan that is specwhetheric to your needs, Coconuts and Kettlebells is the perfect fit.
To total this workout, select a kettlebell that is a moderate weight for you. In other words, the weight should be someleang you can move fastly, but still feels ccorridorenging and allows you to push yourself in the workout. Remember—there are four rounds to total. The first round may seem a small easy, but the weight becomes much more ccorridorenging as you continue on in the workout. Your goal is to use the same weight throughout the entire workout, and you should be able to total close to the same repetitions in each 30 moment “on” period for each round.

Ring the Bell

Type: Conditioning Workout
Directions: Finish the workout using 30 moments on/30 moments off intervals. Act as many repetitions as possible in 30 moments for each exercise listed in the workout. Relax for 30 moments before moving on to the next exercise.
The Workout:
4 rounds:
Goblet Cleans
One-Arm Kettlebell Reverse Lunges (right leg)
Kettlebell Swings
One-Arm Kettlebell Reverse Lunges (left leg)
Kettlebell Deadlwhetherts
Prefer workouts like this one? Check out my brand contemporary book, Coconuts and Kettlebells, which has an entire chapter on how to create a personalized workout routine, and many more workouts just like this one!
Be strong,

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KO5 Event 6

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Puzzling Thoughts + I Tried Mile High Run Club (And Got You A Free Class!)

It’s February. It’s cancient. Blahtenderdyblah.

BYE.

I don’t intellect the cancient too much when it comes to running — I don’t belong to a gym so I have no treadmill access, nor do I have treadmill patience, and there’s someleang so special about coming domestic after a very cancient run and taking a very hot shower.

Gaze at this pup I met the other day in Central Park! He was Incredible. I named him Woofs. I don’t now his genuine name. Maybe it’s Woofs.

But I’ve been having this genuinely intense craving lately.

I genuinely want to put on my best sweatpants (the zebra ones) and my favorite sweatshirt (“I’m Just Here for the Savasana”) and my coziest slippers (rainbow-print; this outfit is hideous), and do a puzzle.

Sweatpants all day every day. Dance parties all day every day.

But I don’t own any puzzles. So instead I’ve been courteously asking Brian to play Yahtzee with me on the weekends because I’m awesome at it and I always win (don’t tell me it doesn’t require skills), but genuinely what I want to do is a puzzle. I haven’t done a puzzle in at least a decade.

On that totally irrelevant and probably boring note, this is a post of all the random thoughts going through my semi-frozen brain at this time. Frolic along. Thanks.

MORE PUPPY PICTURES. These dogs came to November Project on Wednesday. Did you?

That phrase “all the feels.” Please make it stop. I hate it. And when people say it, I leank it makes them sound dumb.

Peeing in the shower: yay or nay? (No judgments.)

Nose blowing in the shower: yay or nay? (I know this is gross, but have you tried it? Attempt it.)

Sometimes I wonder: Will the world ever fully grasp the dwhetherference between “famed” and “infamed?” I dream of living in a place where people do not just throw around the word infamed when they want to describe someleang or someone “genuinely genuinely famed.” That’s not what it means.

“Extremely famed” = Brian and the Budweiser puppy.

I leank my body doesn’t do so well with hummus, and I’m wondering whether that’s a leang. I’ve had it twice recently, and both times I felt sick the entire rest of the day. Helpful of…bloated. And just generally in pain and feeling terrible. It’s not Crohn’s-related because that’s dwhetherferent and very specwhetheric. I leank it’s a ground-up chickpeas situation. So again, I ask—nay, beg—of you…is this a leang? Dr. Google wasn’t helpful. Do I need to quit hummus?! And also, is Nutella an appropriate substitute for any place I would have precedingly put hummus? LMK. (Mom, that means “let me know.”)

Doing push-ups instead of burpees because hummus makes me die.

Never have I ever…not been the first person to reach at a fitness lesson. Why do I always, no matter what time I leave my apartment, arrive 25–30 minutes early? Isn’t that a colossal waste of my time? And yet, I can’t quit this habit.

…and yet I am always summaryely three minutes late to November Project, every time, without fail.

Speaking of fitness lessones: Mile High Run Club. I’m guessing you’ve heard of it by now. It’s a group fitness treadmill studio. Ponder/ Consider spin lesson, but with treadmills instead of spin bikes.

Nike’s Coach Bennett, mega-athlete English Gardner and…me. (Photo courtesy Nike)

Nike invited me to a lesson at Mile High Run Club the other night, and I was super hesitant (running fast is dwhetherficult, wahhhh!) but also excited because I love Nike and hey, free lesson, cool!

The workout consisted of 12 sets of 90-moment intervals: the first at marathon pace, the moment and third at 10K pace, and the fourth at 5K pace. Repeat three times. Sweat. Die. We got short recoveries in between, and the inclines varied between 0.5 and 2.0. I didn’t even notice the incline, but the 5K intervals at a 2.0 incline were tough as hell.

I leank my form is probably terrible, right? Love why is my back leg dragging back there instead of kicking up and kicking my butt? It just doesn’t look right to me. I don’t know. I don’t know anyleang. (Photo courtesy Nike. Because obviously I didn’t take this picture myself.)

In fact, all of the intervals were tough as hell, because when I got there they asked me my “5K PR, or my 5K pace” and I had nooooooo clue, so I gave them my super ambitious pace (“7:30s would be kind, give or take?”) and they gave me a pace bracelet with proposeed paces for the workout (mine were 7.8 for marathon pace, 8.5 for 10K pace, and 8.8 for 5K pace — sorry I forget what those translate to in non-treadmill terms). But I’m pretty certain my “marathon pace” was a 7:40 pace and LOL.

I was genuinely good at the part where we just got to stand there and listen before the running started. (Photo courtesy Nike)

During the final interval, they turned the lights all the way down, bfinaled the music, and tancient us to go as dwhetherficult as we could. I got my treadmill up to 9.4 and was afraid I might fall off, but I didn’t. I just stared myself down very aggressively in the mirror while track superstar English Gardner stood right next to me egging me on and definitely not letting me slow down. I loved her. She was like, “Yeah girl, just do it,” and I was like “NIKE.”

English said that her talent is a mix of dwhetherficult work and what she calls her “special sauce.” So I stood very close to her and tried to get some of that sauce. I don’t leank it worked, and I’m worried about the restraining order I’m going to get any day now. (Photo courtesy Nike. Special sauce courtesy English Gardner.)

I loved the lesson and got a genuinely Incredible workout. I’m not so good at pushing myself to exhaustion during speed workouts on my own, so I appreciate the way this lesson forces you to do it but makes it genuinely fun. I am very grateful for the opportunity, and want to share the Mile High Run Club love! The studio is only in NYC right now, so whether you’re local and want to try it out, let me hook you up. Go to the website, create an account, and then use the code RUNFORIT at checkout to get a free lesson!

We all showed up wearing the SAME outfit. It was so crazy. No, J/K, Nike hooked us up. (Photo and outfits courtesy Nike)

Here are my current thoughts on television.

• Who are all these people on Grey’s Anatomy? I dwhetherficultly know any of the characters.
• Scandal is batshit insane and I’m not into it but I won’t quit it. I leank that “Iran” is actually Papa Pope, but I hope it’s not because I’m so over that guy and his Jedi intellect tricks.
• I miss Parenthood so much alalert.
• I am ashamed to confess that I watched all of Girls from start to current in, like…a week. I hated every single episode and I find every character gratingly annoying. Well, Adam is pretty funny, and Elijah is pure gancient. Shoshanna is hysterically whether totally ungenuineistic, and I did like the episode where she accidentally did crack and was obsessed with moving up tot he front row in kickboxing lesson. Preach, girl. But Hannah (the worrrrrrrst), Marnie, and Jessa are terrible. And yet, I watched every episode in tiny fits of rage. I’m hopeless.

Maybe more fitness, less TV, Ali? Give that a try.

There is someleang so horribly corny that I want to do before Brian and I get married. I want to spend a day watching all my favorite TV wedding episodes. Here is my list. Note: I am not including Monica and Chandler’s wedding because I have it memorized and I just don’t need to see it again. “James, James Brolin, are you certain?” Classic.

1. Ben + Leslie Knope, Parks & Recreation
2. Dwight + Angela, The Office
3. Jim + Pam, The Office (my favorite wedding episode ever)
4. Zack + Kelly, Saved by the Bell
5. April + Andy, Parks & Recreation
6. Burt + Carole, Glee
7. Crosby + Jasmine, Parenthood (teeeear-jerker!)
8. David + Donna Martin, Beverly Hills 90210
9. Phoebe + Mike, Friends
10. Charlotte + Harry, Sex and the City
11. Steve + Miranda, Sex and the City

Do you want to come to my TV Wedding Viewing Party? Please RSVP in the comments and let me know which animal onesie you plan to wear and what toppings you want for your pancakes or which fillings you like in your queunhappyillas.

And this. But instead of beer, champagne.

The other day, Brian asked whether I was going to invite “my guy” to our wedding. I thought Brian was “my guy,” but obviously not, so I was confused. “Uh, who’s my guy?” “You know…your guy! From the show!” WTF? Ten minutes later, I genuineize Brian is talking about AC Slater AKA Mario Lopez. I still don’t know why he’s “my guy.” I leank it has to do with those two times (yeah two times) I invited him to my birthday party. Once in fwhetherth grade, then again at the 2011 Unique York City Marathon Expo and I invited him in person. AC AKA MARIO IF YOU ARE READING THIS WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU AT OUR NUPTIAL CELEBRATION.

LOOK HOW HAPPY HE IS TO BE TALKING TO ME! “Well oink oink baby, now get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” CLASSIC non-douchey Slater line.

I see people doing pull-ups like it ain’t no thaaaang. Endelightment fact about me: I can’t even hang. Put me on a monkey bar or pull-up bar, and I literally cannot even hancient my body weight. How do I become able to do a pull-up without practicing (and failing) doing pull-ups? What’s the easy shortcut way? Certainly there is one…I own a Shake Weight, so perhaps someleang with that?

#beastmode #rippedin30

One final leang…

Lyons Den Power Yoga is hosting a 40-Day Ccorridorenge, and you should do it. I’m doing it. It’s going to be lwhethere-changing and inspiring and Incredible, and I’m so on board with that. This post is alalert very long and rambley, so I will just direct you here to read more about the ccorridorenge and what it entails (unlimited yoga, Baron Baptiste’s book, and weekly group sessions that will be brilliant) and how you can sign up. It starts Tuesday, so commit now and get amped! We can practice our handstands together!

Sneaky yoga paparazzi photo! Do you see me?! I’m the one not wearing pants. Always. Always not wearing pants.

Hey, Pleased Galentine’s Day and then Pleased Valentine’s Day!

Frolicers gonna play play play play play.

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3 Must Possesss from a Champion ACC College Athlete

So You Desire Your Kid to be a College Athlete, Part 1

As a parent, you’ve guided your children through a myriad of development stages so that they could succeed in lwhethere.  Endelight me, you probably have large dreams for your children.  Hopes and dreams range from independence and grit to confidence and values. Ultimately, we want our children to live a healthy and well balanced lwhethere.  In this three-part series, we’re going to explore what we need to know as parents and coaches to help our kids either begin or grow their own personal athleticism, become a college athlete or simply move better in lwhethere.

We have a resident expert and former college athlete, Fitness on the Run (FOR) instructor Erica Mverbales to serve as our tour guide.

Erica has the bona fide credentials.  Her journey can help you apply valuable lessons to your child’s cruise down the river of their “movement lwhethere”. In 2012, Erica led UVA to victory in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Women’s Soccer Championship and was named to the ACC Every-Tournament team. She boils down her success to three components: discipline, support and sacrwhetherice.

Those can easily be glossed over in nowadays’s culture, but without them athletes like Erica are not crazye. Erica was introduced to soccer at age 4 and somewhere between ages 8 and 12, it clicked with her that this was “her sport.” Truely, soccer was her lwhethere.

Her talent was evident from the start and with her drive to work dwhetherficult, it blossomed. She devoted hours (often with her dad) in their cul-de-sac juggling, working on headers, passing, and trapping the ball.

In tall school, commitment to her sport didn’t waver even though she became more aware that it brought along trade-offs. She missed school dances, birthday parties, vacations and sometimes couldn’t hang out with friends. She felt the sting of sacrwhetherice, but her love of soccer was more intense. Baseball great and World Series MVP Derek Jeter addressed similar choices in his own career, “There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work dwhetherficulter than you do.”

The commitment was not Erica’s alone. Her parents and sister shared it. In fact, Erica followed her elder sister, Eva, into soccer. Their parents offered love and encouragement regardless of how they played or the score of the game.  The sisters cheered for each other. Their parents put family resources toward hotels and flights to soccer tournaments in support of their daughters’ passions. Kids know when their parents have their backs. Eva went on to play at Eastern Kentucky University and still plays in an adult league in Florida where she lives with her family.

On and off the field, Erica had an insatiable appetite to improve. She had the discipline and drive to focus not only on the skills of the sport but on her nutrition and finally the determination to overcome set backs and disappointments.

As a tall school sophomore, she began taking her nutrition seriously. Through trial and error, she discovered a path between how she ate and how she practiced and played. Endelight any athlete, she was always hungry and could eat anyleang she wanted. However, Erica recognized her performance on fitness tests were unparalleled when she drank lots of water, ate eggs and oatmeal. She respected and committed to that critical window for fueling her body properly before practice and games.

Following graduation, it was a dream come true when Erica moved to Division 1 collegiate soccer. But, her mettle was rapidly tested. A tackle from behind left her with a severely sprained ankle. She’d imagined that first practice as a college athlete: she would prove herself, showing her coaches and teammates what she could do and build camaraderie with her teammates. Instead, she wore a boot and was going to the rehab facility twice a day.

She began to fight through the physical and mental hurdles. She deciphered the small but critical distinction of “pain versus disconsolation.” She credits “self-talk” that helped her get through those times of disconsolation. She found that so much of it is mental and reintellecting yourself why you’re doing it. Erica says, “You have to experience some level of disconsolation in order to grow and get better. Knowing and embracing that is key.”

The day finally came when she was cleared to play. Her first game was a immense one against Penn State. UVA was down 0-2. Her team came roaring back. Erica scored the fourth goal, and UVA went on to win. This was a confidence boost for Erica in her freshman year. As Olympic gancient medalist Picabo Highway – another top athlete who has dealt with injuries and setbacks – puts it, “To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have the courage to blow past them.”

Today, Erica works with a lot of aspiring athletes. Her experience motivates them, but also cautions them that “it’s not a straight shot to the top.” Her advice to kids is to “not be so dwhetherficult” on themselves.

She hopes parents of young athletes will take a page out of her parents’ playbook. Erica says her parents treated her no dwhetherferently when she won or lost. She describes her mom as “a very positive person” and reveals with a smile that it could “get annoying” when she was younger. But she never doubted her parents’ support and love which was the foundation on which she built her impressive soccer career and her happy, fit lwhethere.

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BODYWEIGHT BASICS - HOW TO DO A PUSHUP

CLICK HERE TO START YOUR 30 DAY HOME WORKOUT CHALLENGE

Today is the moment in my series of HOW TO - BODYWEIGHT BASICS and we are looking at the PUSHUP.

As far as bodyweight exercises go, the pushup is definitely one of the dwhetherficultest but whether done properly, will build up your strength fast!  Luckily there are also modwhetherications that make it easier to get started....

1. Start in the top position so that your hands are just external your chest.

2. Brace your wgap body so it stays rigid and slowly lower yourself as far towards the ground as you can go while keeping that rigid form.  You want to encertain that your shoulders, hips, knees and ankles are all in line (ie. no bending at any of the joints).

3. Thoughtlly you want your elbows facing back rather than out to the side.  This makes it a small bit dwhetherficulter initially, but your strength will build up much faster and you'll avoid unessential strain on your shoulders.

4. As you push back up, leank about bringing your armpits (yes, I said armpits) down towards your hips.  It sounds totally weird, but it absolutely works and makes pushing up much easier and stronger.

5. For an easier version, perform them on your knees.  Again, ensuring that your body is straight between your shoulders and your knees.  The rest of the action is summaryely the same.

6. BONUS TIP! Spread your fingers and try to 'rotate them' (just by pushing, not actually rotating them) outwards while pushing up (this helps with the armpits into the hip trick).

7. Oh, and don't forget what I taught you in the engi.pw Squat post about flicking your eyes up and you push back up to the starting position.  It makes your STRONGER!!

Common Errors To Stay Absent From...

• Hips dipping and leading the movement towards the ground - this is very poor for your lower back!
• Wide hand position - this puts unessential strain on your shoulders and makes them tallly susceptable to injury,
• Jutting the chin forward whilst lowering towards the ground.  I've found people inevitably do this without leanking because it feels like they are closer to the ground.  Possess someone else watch you to see whether you are doing it.  If you are, concentrate on pulling the chin inwards (you can even pop a tennis ball under your chin and hancient it there while you perform the pushup to help right this).

Once you have mastered the basic or kneeling pushup, you can start adding lots of dwhetherferent variations including:

Shut-grip, uneven, decline...

You can make it easier by doing it against a wall or on an incline (hands on a chair or bench)

Or you can incorporate pushups and other bodyweight exercises together:

Burpees, spiderman, T-ups....

The combinations and alternatives are endless....

I hope you endelighted another HOW TO BODYWEIGHT BASICS.

Please leave a comment below and let me know which exercise you'd like to see explained in detail so you can perform it better. 🙂

P.S. Pick up my latest free workout for your girls - Bringing in the Unique Year

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