HIIT Workout - Outside Addition :-)

Workout Of The Day - 

So yesterday I posted on Instagram that I would be posting an outside workout. I want to do this for a couple of reasons.

 1. Sometimes people do not have access to the gym and want things that they can do at home. I have bought a pair of weights that were inexpensive to use at home.

 2. The weather is so beautiful it sucks to be stuck inside a stuffy…smelly...dim gym. 

 3. Vitamin D is AMAZING for you to get regularly! Being outside in the sun has been shown to increase neurotransmitter release, therefore making the correlation in your brain that exercise is fun! :-) 

So yesterday I went to the gym for a quick arm sesh and then decided to go outside for some sun and cardio! :-) So here is a little workout. (I used bleachers but they are not a necessity) 

Circuit 1 - 

Up and down the stairs (or high knees) for 1 min 

Lunges up bleachers (or lunges on track) for 1 min 

Step up and kickback on bench or elevate surface – 10 each side 

Break for 1-2 minutes (If you have a heart rate monitor, wait until your heart rate has returned to a normal level. If you don’t use your breathing as a monitoring tool. You should be able to breathe “normally” with only slight impairment.) 

Circuit 2 - 

Toe taps on stairs (or fast feet) for 1 min 

      Moving feet one at a time forwards and backwards as fast as you can go 

Up and down the stairs (or high knees) 1 min 

Sprint one length of bleacher x 4 (or spring for 15 secs x4) 

Circuit 3 - 

Run one lap 

Sprint for 35-45 secs 

Walk one lap

This little workout took me about 20 minutes. Remember to rest and get your heart rate back to normal. This is going to help later on with your hormone level, which at night will help with muscle repair. Hope you like this workout. I am going to be posting more I promise!! Life has been so crazy, but I am getting back to my roots ;-)

The Dreaded "C" Word...Cardio

Let’s talk about the dreaded cardio…dun dun dunnnn. I have said it many times and I will say it many more, I am sure, I AM NOT A CARDIO BUNNY. If I could get away with doing no cardio at all that would be the life! Unfortunately I understand the benefits of cardio and why it is needed in a well rounded fitness routine. Some people will tell you that you don’t need to cardio that strength training is all you need. I don’t believe in “cutting” anything out of my fitness routine. This goes for food, cardio, different workouts, etc.

This week my coach increased my cardio to an hour 6 times a week in order to continue to cut body fat. Once your body gets to a point it starts to retain water, fat, etc. in order to stay “healthy”. I am trying to cut fat in order to get ready for a show which means ill have to get down to 12-14% body fat, which is not an everyday body fat percentage. With that being said I had to increase cardio in order to help my body along with this process.

In an effort to make cardio more fun and interesting I have started to do HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts 2-4 times a week. Personally interval training makes cardio more fun and it goes by faster. So why is cardio important?

1. Cardio helps burn calories which will aid in fat loss.

2. Cardio helps build the most important muscle in your body, your heart.

3. Increase in cardio exercise releases endorphins (serotonin, dopamine, etc.) which improve your mood.

4. Cardio decrease stress, mentally and physically.

5. Cardio increases your endurance which will help in strength training.

6. Cardio will help you sleep better; getting a full night sleep will allow your body to repair after intense strength training sessions.

Sounds great doesn’t it?! Well all these things don’t mean cardio still doesn’t suck! I have recent done research on HIIT workouts and sprints. Take some time and look at pictures of sprinters, they are built! HIIT has become my new form of go to cardio so I will share some of the workouts that I do.

-HIIT can be done in many different ways. The way that I like to do it is by setting up an exercise for each muscle group and doing that exercise for 30 seconds and then a rest period. Some people do exercises that will increase heart rate but not use weighted exercises. This is totally up to you. Look up some HIIT example workouts, try a few and see which ones you like best.

HIIT Workout (Full body workout)

Shoulders

-Squat Press

-Bicycle Crunches

-Jumping Jacks

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Chest

-Steering wheels with plate

-Reverse crunches on BOSU or bench

-High Knees

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Back

-Bent Over Row with Barbell

-Plank

-Mountain Climbers

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Hamstrings

-Deadlifts

-Situps

-Side to Side on BOSU ball

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Quads

-Squat with Barbell

-Glute Bridges

-Box Jumps

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Calves

-Calf Raise with Barbell

-Oblique Plank Twists

-Jump Squats

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Biceps

-Bicep curls

-Leg Lifts

-Jumping Jacks

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

Triceps

-Triceps Extension

-Russian Twists

-Box Taps

(each exercise 30 secs back to back, 1 min rest)

My workout partner and I did this last week and it was killer!! Takes about an hour but it flies!

-I put up a treadmill sprint workout in my leg day post so be sure to check that out if you want to give sprints a try. I’ll be putting up more cardio workouts as I go into this week as well in order to help you guys along!

(Me after my hour cardio day yesterday)

Workout of the Day: Chest and Triceps

Workout of the Day: Chest and Triceps

In honor of “International chest day” being yesterday I thought I would post a helpful little blog about chest exercises! :-) I know that men work out chest a good deal, but women are hesitant to work it out. Why you ask? Well I believe the answer is that women don’t want to appear “bulky” and think that working out chest will give them huge pec muscles like men. 

****with that being said lets blow one myth out of the water, women DO NOT have the same muscle structure as men, therefore working chest or legs or whatever WILL NOT make you look manly****

Whew, I’m glad that’s out of the way! Haha. I will not lie, when I first started working out in the gym I thought that only men should do weights. Later, after copious amounts of reading, I learned that women benefit a great deal from weight lifting. Did you know that muscle burns more calories than fat?! SOOO having more muscle means more fat loss! So ladies, jump off that cardio machine and hit this chest/triceps workout to build those muscles!

-Super Quick Anatomy Lesson-

-Chest

Two major muscles in the chest area, the pectoralis major and minor. The major is the muscle that is on top and minor is below it and they both cover part of the rib cage. It is important for women to work these muscles because it “lifts” the breast and gets rid of that “side armpit boob”. :-)

-Triceps

There are three “heads” on the triceps; the long head, lateral head, and medial head. The triceps compose 60% of the arm but most people work out only their biceps. It is important to do exercises that hit all these heads in order to give the arm a lean shape. 

Workout:

-Warm up – (arm circles, seal jacks, shoulder rolls, etc) 5 mins

1. Push-ups

- Sets – 5

- Reps – 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

2. Barbell Incline Bench Press

- Sets – 4

- Reps – 15, 12, 10, 8

3. Rope Tricep Extension

- Sets – 4

- Reps – 18, 15, 12, 10

4. Machine Flye

- Sets – 4

- Reps – 18, 15, 12, 10

5. Dumbbell Kickbacks

- Sets – 4

- Reps - 15, 12, 10, 8

6. Cable Cross Over

- Set – 3

- Reps – 12, 10, 8

7. Dips (unassisted or assisted) **I usually do half and half**

- Sets –5

- Reps – 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Happy Lifting Ya'll! :-)

WOD: Leg Day :-)

So Monday was leg day, one of my favorite days! Leg day has always been a favorite of mine because I have naturally strong legs. I want to share my leg day workout so that all of you can have fabulous legs and booty :-)

When doing a leg day one must first understand muscle usage. You will get a much better workout if you are thinking about the muscle you are supposed to be using when doing an exercise. For example, I have very strong quads so when I would do a leg curl I would pull with my quads totally defeating the purpose of the exercise. So I found a diagram of the leg muscles that you can look at to make sure that you are using the right muscle. I will also put on the workout what the primary muscle is from the exercise.

(Picture from make-me-strong.com)

I hope this helps, if at any point you have questions feel free to ask!

WOD:

1. Leg Curl Machine (focus - hamstrings)
Sets - 5
Reps - 15, 12, 10, 8, 15 (last set return to lighter weight)

2. Seated Leg Press (focus - quads and glutes)
Sets - 5
Reps - 15, 12, 10, 8, 15 (last set return to lighter weight)

3. Seated Leg Press, Calf Raises (focus - calves)
Sets - 4
Reps - 30, 25, 20, 15

4. Smith Machine Squats (focus - complete leg)
Sets - 4
Reps - 15, 15, 15, 15
**to make this more difficult I use a BOSU ball. I put the ball on the dome part and balance myself. I like this because it forces me to engage my core during the exercise, which is what a lot of people forget to do during squats**

5. Inverted Leg Press (focus - quads, hams, glutes)
Sets - 5
Reps - 15, 12, 10, 8, 15
**towards the end of this workout you may be getting tired, but if you're not I would pulse for as long as you can on the last set to help start the "burnout" process.**

6. Reverse Lunge into Step Up on Bench (focus - hamstrings and glutes)
Sets - 3
Reps - 20, 20, 20 (ten each leg)
**to see an example of this check out my Instagram, I put a video up**

7. Barbell Calf Raises
Sets - 3
Reps - 30, 30, 30

30 minutes of cardio
- For cardio on leg day it depends on how I feel which kind of cardio that I do, steady state or interval. On this leg day I chose to do interval because I didn't feel to terribly bad and wanted to push myself. I change up machines (treadmill, elliptical, bike, stair climber, etc.) that I use and the interval routine. I don't have a specific routine that I like to do, I just mix a bunch of different types of intervals together. So here is a little routine you can try.

3 min warm up (incline 5.0, speed 2.0-2.8)
1 min jog (incline 1.5, speed 5.0-6.0)
1 min walk (incline 1.5, speed 3.5)
30 sec sprint (incline 1.5, speed 8.0+)
30 complete rest
Repeat sprints 5 times total
1 min jog (incline 1.5, speed 5.0-6.0)
1 min walk (incline 1.5, speed 3.5)
1 min walk (incline 10, speed 2.8)
1 min walk (incline 11, speed 2.9)
1 min walk (incline 12, speed 3.0)
1 min walk (incline 13, speed 3.1)
1 min walk (incline 14, speed 3.2)
1 min walk (incline 15, speed 3.3)
2 min cool down (incline 1.5, speed 2.0-2.8)

Total time - 20 minutes

Happy Lifting!!

The Importance of Nutrition!

Today I am going to focus on nutrition! But…before I do that I want to talk about the difference between a diet and a lifestyle change. Diets have an expiration date, once you reach the goal most go back to the old way of doing things. This is detrimental because you end up right back where you started. Another reason why diets are bad is because most people partake in “crash diets” defined as,

                “A weight-loss diet undertaken with the aim of achieving very rapid results”   

You may be happy that you lost all the weight so quickly, but the majority of people gain it back and then SOME! You also want to be careful when participating in “fad” diets and anything that says you can lose “10 pounds in 10 days”. Losing weight quickly means that you are at such a calorie deficit that your body is actually gone into starvation mode and is burning muscle because it is energy dense, instead of fat burning.

The most important thing that I have learned about diet is that your body needs, requires nourishment! This comes from getting a steady amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. I have been on multiple different diets, and I can say with certainty that I feel my best when I have a balanced diet of protein, carbs, and healthy fats.  Now everyone is different and goals are different so I, nor anyone else, can tell you how many you should get on average. For my competition I am trying to cut (get leaner) while still building muscle, so my protein is high and carbs are lower. Here is a website that you can go to and put in your info and it will tell you what you daily should look like. I know that it is a pain in the butt to calculate the exact amount of food that you need at each meal, but in the end it is worth it I promise. I am three weeks in and can see an amazing difference!

                http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

When I started my fitness journey I knew that I was going to have to make lifestyle changes. No more Taco Bell runs or Kit Kats during the day. I don’t worry so much about calories, as I worry about the “macros” of what I’m eating. One thing that I have learned recently is “macros” and “micros”. Macros are your proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Micros are your vitamins, phytochemicals, salt, etc.

Now with all this information we can start to make a meal plan! The best meal plan is one that has six meals spread throughout the day in order to maintain an active metabolism. You want to plan three larger meals; breakfast, lunch, and dinner and three small snacks. You need to think about the times of day that you will be active and plan around those (i.e. I work out at after work so I need to eat a larger dinner to help with the calorie deficit). If you work out in the morning, breakfast should be your biggest meal, etc.  

****Before you read my meal plan please be aware that I am currently cutting for a bikini competition so my diet is very strict, this is not an average diet. Use the macro calculator to find how much you should be taking in daily and use this meal plan as a base****

My basic meal plan…

Breakfast:

4 oz of protein (eggs)

1/3 cup of carb (oatmeal, Ezekiel bread)

Snack 1:

4 oz. of protein

½ oz. of nuts (or 1 tbs. of natural peanut butter)

1/3 cup of carb (brown rice, black beans, sweet potato)

Lunch:

1 cup of green vegetable (broccoli, small salad)

4 oz. of protein

1/3 cup of carb (same as above)

Snack 2:

1 ½ scoop Protein shake (whey protein, yummm)

½ oz of nuts (1 tbs. peanut butter)

Dinner:

5 oz. of protein

1 cup of vegetable (anything green!!!)

1.5 oz of avocado

1/3 cup of carbs (same as above)

Snack 3:

4 oz. of protein

1 oz. of avocado (1 tbs. of peanut butter)

This keeps me full and satisfied all day! I like this meal plan because it gives me the ability to make different kinds of protein (ground turkey, chicken, and fish) that way it doesn’t get boring! I love peanut butter and avocado so I usually eat those instead of nuts (make sure to buy NATURAL peanut butter, more to come on that later!) Once you start a meal plan you may be thinking to yourself “man that’s a lot of food!” Your body becomes accustom to being fed regularly and starts burning fat more effectively. I can actually tell what time it is by the way my body feels. I don’t really have to use an alarm clock anymore because my body knows that at 7:30 am it is time to eat! If you start to see yourself getting hungrier you can always add more vegetables!

Many of you are probably like “ok, we get it food is important but where is the workout?!” The very first thing that I learned in my fitness journey is that food is 90% of losing weight/being healthy. Exercise will help, but it is important to get a good firm grasp on your nutrition first!

First hand experience, I have been eating relatively clean for about 6 months. Stayed the same weight, 136.4 to be exact! I would have a cheat meal once a week and little cheats (like a Kit Kat) throughout the week. Not until I became fully committed to my diet did I start to see SERIOUS changes. My body has changed so much! I promise that workouts are coming soon, but nutrition is by far more important and my favorite thing to talk about! 

If you have any questions leave me a comment!!

Progress Picture of me for my first month of training. Check me out on Instagram, link at the top of my page!

Hi Everyone!!

Hi there everyone!!

Well, this is my first post. I want to first introduce myself and tell you why I decided to get into the “fitness” industry! :-) My name is Cassie and I am a 25 year old from New Orleans. I have moved around a great deal my whole life because my parents were in the military. I came to New Orleans to go to school and now work full time as a social worker.

I started my fitness journey about 1 ½ ago when I noticed that I was unhappy with myself. I have always been a confident person but my activity level changed when I got a desk job, rut ro :-(. I gained about 25 pounds and my self-esteem went in the toilet. So I decided that I needed a change. I told myself that I was going to start going to the gym and actually go! So I signed up and got a trainer to help me in the beginning. To be totally honest I have had multiple memberships at gyms but never stayed because I was intimidated and didn’t know ANYTHING about how to use any of the equipment. I think that the only thing I knew how to use was a treadmill! I was fortunate enough to have a trainer to help push me in gym and teach me about weight lifting, and my life forever changed!

Over time I became more confident in the gym and was able to go without a trainer. The more and more time I spent in the gym the more and more I loved it. I loved the way I looked and the way I was feeling, both mentally and physically. I had trainers at the gym for about a year and they taught me so much about pre-workouts, protein powders, diets, workouts, etc. When personal training ended I was able to create my own workouts and continued to stay fit! I now want to share that information with ya’ll!

To end this little section about me I want to talk about my decision to compete in a fitness competition. While spending time in the gym and meeting people there I learned about the different types of fitness competitions for women. I was intrigued by their dedication to fitness and eating healthy. I added this to my bucket list of things that I wanted to do. I tried for a couple of months to prep on my own but I only had me to be accountable to, and so I cheated a lot! Recently I decided that I needed to get serious and got a competition coach and it has been the best move of my life. Her name is Shannon (#shansations) and she motivates me on a regular basis. My first NPC competition will be in April so I have about 12 weeks to prep! I hope that you follow along on my journey to see me become a bikini competitor!

So the question becomes, why start a blog? Who do you want to read this? I started a blog because when I started I read a lot of information, I couldn’t get enough. I would scroll through Instagram and be motivated by fit, healthy women. I want to be part of that; I want to inspire others to achieve their goals, whatever they may be! Fitness has become a passion of mine and I want to share my journey and knowledge with anyone that wants the information!

Write in the comments any questions or topics you may have about fitness, I would love to know what you guys have questions about!

-Cassie
#shansations2014