Badass Fitness

The #BadassBurpeesChallenge: Get In It to #getafterit!!!

Burpees are like vitamins. We don't always want them, but we feel better for having made them a part of our daily routine. They can be tough to swallow, but in the end they make us stronger.

Let's be real, people: Of all the exercises we love to hate and hate to love, burpees are right up there among the top three - if not king of the mountain at No. 1! Because burpees are no joke, right? They require maximum effort. They test our determination and, depending on how many are in the WOD, our endurance.

Yep, burpees kick badass. But if we keep at them, they also help US kick some major badass. #FACT.

The best part? They can be done in a very short window of our precious time. This efficiency of time spent vs. results is HUGE during the holidays that, basically, start right now as we prepare for Halloween. Before the kids' trick or treat baskets are even emptied, it will be Thanksgiving...then Christmas and Hanukkah...and before we know it, New Year's Eve is here.

Crapsticks! So we have to #getAFTERit, and pronto!!! Fear not - I have the perfect solution: The 2012 BadassBurpeesChallenge. (Don't all release a sigh of relief at once, now! We GOT this.)

Here's the skinny: Every day, at least once a day but up to four times a day, we stop and do one minute of burpees. We count how many we do in a minute. We log it every time. Maybe you set a goal at the start, like "I did 20 but my goal is 30 in one minute." At the end of six weeks, ending on Nov. 22 (Thanksgiving Day!), we each do one final minute to see just how much faster, stronger and more Badass we have gotten at those burpees. You send me your video #proof, and the winner (based on greatest gains, most fun and creative video), gets a prize pack of some awesome swag!

THIS is what one minute of burpees looks like:

 

You've GOT that! So tell me, are you in? Are you in to #getafterit? Can you spare just one minute a day to show yourself how awesome you are? Maybe you even add some "oomph" by doing a burpee with a Bosu, like this:

 

This challenge is simple. Doable. Measurable. It requires the smallest fraction of our busy days. And at the end, we will no doubt surprise ourselves at how much strength we have gained!

Burpees are badass like that. Little wonder that the U.S. Army, amid WWII, adopted burpees as a way to assess recruits' agility, coordination, strength and overall fitness levels!

The BadassBurpeesChallenge starts today. I will post video #proof of myself and others along the way (send me yours and join the Badass Fitness Facebook group for a steady stream of updates, encouragement and fist bumps. Share this post, spread the love! The more, the merrier. That is how the Badass Army rolls!

I will leave you with a Burpee Fun Fact:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the exercise was named in the 1930s for American physiologist Royal H. Burpee, who developed the Burpee test. He earned a PhD in Applied Physiology from Columbia University in 1940 and created the "Burpee" exercise for his PhD thesis as a quick and simple way to assess fitness.

Thank you, Dr. Burpee, for keeping us on our toes...and hands...and jump-ups!

Coming next week: Paleo Pumpkin Bread with muscle-building "frosting," a guest blog from the Badass Fitness VP, and a Freaky Friday TRX workout to scare off those candy zombies!

 

What's Beautiful? I say a Badass, Unleashed! Share your "beautiful" with Under Armour!

When I was a little girl, I used to love going into my Grandma's bathroom to play with her makeup. I ooh'd and aaah'd over the rich eyeshadows and the bright pink and red lipsticks. To me, that was beautiful.

When I was in middle school, I looked forward to the annual Miss America pageant on TV. My favorite part was when the contestants came onstage in their evening gowns and perfectly coiffed hair. To me, that was beautiful.

In high school and my first year of college, I let magazine pictures of skinny runway models define "beautiful" for me. I obsessed over being thin, controlling what I ate to stay thin. In my skewed mirror, literal and figurative, they were beautiful and I was not.

Today, midway through my 30s, I see beauty in simpler but stronger terms. To me, beautiful is about finding, embracing and unleashing that "inner Badass," as I call it. To me, beautiful is sweaty sports bras, sore muscles and muddy sneakers. It is heavy dumbbells, calories torched and a new PR set. Beautiful is the shower and makeup and hair I do AFTER a bootcamp or a session of hard training. I felt my most beautiful as I crossed the finish line at the Chicago Marathon, a hot sweaty and muscles-burning mess. Beauty in my book is the joy and newly discovered confidence on a student's or client's face when they achieve a new level of strength or fitness.

Just this month, a cycling student set a new mile pace in a 5K and when she sent me a text, I could just see the smile on her face. "Beautiful," I thought. (There we are, at left, before my Power Core class.) And when a student battling MS finished her first endurance cycle ride with me last week, she radiated with beautiful happiness and declared herself the victor over her disease. Awesome. Beautiful. 

THIS is the "beautiful" at the heart of Under Armour Women's What's Beautiful campaign, and I am posting about this in hopes that all of my female readers will join the Under Armour challenge to set a goal, then "crush it."

With this campaign, open to all of us, Under Armour Women is setting out to redefine the female athlete by encouraging women to share their fitness journeys. In exchange, participants get a steady stream of motivation from fellow participants, free gear (holla!) and support from Under Armour along the way. Oh, not to mention a fully kick-Badass prize!

The Under Armour What's Beautiful community is growing as I type, and the women in the challenge are seriously bringing it. But I also know my female Badass recruits can REALLY bring it! So here's my challenge to you, dear readers (and guys reading this, get your lady friends on this!). Go to the What's Beautiful campaign site. Set your own goal. Crush it. The videos alone will inspire you to aspire to more.

When you do sign up, tweet about it and tag Under Armour plus use hashtags #fitfluential and #whatsbeautiful (and #badass or #badassfitness if there is room!)

Under Armour will be giving prizes regularly based on your awesome videos and pics. The best part comes at the "finish line": The 10 women with the "most epic journeys," as Under Armour puts it, will win a trip to Clearwater, Florida to the Under Armour Women's Camp Sweat to train with the best, learn from nutritionists AND get pampered with spa treatments.

Seriously, how can you NOT want to be part of this awesome challenge?

And comment below or e-mail me at [email protected] to talk about your goal, how you plan to crush it, and your definition of "beautiful," for a future follow-up post. We can all get inspiration from each other!

Note: FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.

Wednesday WOD: Zero Excuses, All Tabata

It's Wednesday, time to push through that midway Hump toward the weekend - and this time, we get a three-day weekend thanks to Labor Day!

This WOD (workout of the day) is all Tabata drills, alternating cardio rounds with strength. Ideally, you rest no more than 2 minutes between each Tabata set to keep the heart rate pumping and the muscles firing. This one is no joke, but it WILL power you through the day and make you feel invincible heading toward the weekend! It will also make the most of 25 minutes of work, using high intensity interval training to stoke the metabolism and burn major calories.

Now go on. #getafterit

Coming up: My Foodie Pen Pal surprise, and chocolate and cookies I am NOT feeling guilt over!

TGIF! Time for a #50BadassReps Burner!

The summer is ending, college football season is near, and another Friday is here! Time to store the pool floaties and beach towels away and get our game faces on, people!

Those football games don't get won with easy breezy gym sessions and margarita dates. Victory - on the football field and in your own Badass Journey - comes with hard work, buckets of perspiration... and #50BadassReps!

So bust open your own "offense" with this #50BadassReps WOD. It's 50 reps of various moves, multiplied, for a Badass-whoopin' that will make your endorphins flow like a bottle of vino at Friday Happy Hour.

Workout now, Toast later!

12 Minutes, 12 Planks... and One Big Badass Movement

We planked in our offices, under our desks, and on sun decks. We planked solo, with friends, and with our children. We planked in the grass, on pickup truck flatbeds, and outside happy hour watering holes where Florida's lawmakers deal their deals. We planked in our pajamas (or less, in one case!), in our dress shirts, and in our workout gear. We planked every hour, for one minute at a time, from dawn until dusk.

And in those 12 hours, I like to think we proved a lot more than "12 one-minute planks are possible." The #12HourBadassPlank Challenge I issued at the start of this week began as a fun way to get us all to fit in a little fitness. But as word spread and tweets multipled and dozens of pictures were emailed to me and posted on the Badass Fitness Facebook page, I saw that we were doing more than we set out to do.

We were proving the power each of us has to start a fitness movement.

With every plank, we got co-workers to join in. We got our normally apathetic teens to join in. Girls who are probably already fretting with insecurities got together at their track meet and planked together. Girl Power, multiplied.

Couples got face to face as they planked together, and then they planked with their kindergartners. Strangers in other states sent in tweets and pictures of their unlikely plank stations - from cubicle desktops to sandy white beaches.

We talk alot on this blog and on Facebook about the "Badass Army." Our T-shirts proclaim, "Building a Badass Army." Thursday, we did just that.

Did we eradicate childhood obesity and a nationwide epidemic of diabetic, deconditioned adults in a single day? No. Did we turn couch potatoes into marathon runners? Of course not. But that's not how the fitness movement will be successful.

Instead, I submit to you all that it will start with these baby steps. It will start with each of us doing our own part to prove that not a single one of us is "too far gone" to get healthier.

It sounds cheesy, maybe, but it really does start one step at a time.  If we could each get up every hour and do one minute of exercise as we did Thursday, and most importantly get gym-phobes to join in, why can't we do that every day?

What if a healthier U.S. starts with a healthier "us," in less time every day than it takes to hard boil an egg? What if it really does just start with one exercise for one minute?

What if it starts with the Badass Army? I think it can. I think it did. And I know it's just the beginning.

Coming up: Ode to the Avocado, and Olympic inspiration!

This Workout is Coming in 5-4-3-2-1...

Here's the good news: This workout will take you as little as 15 minutes.

Here's the bad news: It's one of my trademark "well that seemed easy enough on paper" workouts.

But here's more good news: Yes it is absolutely a Badass-kicker, and yes you can absolutely conquer it!

It's a countdown workout blending cardio and strength with five sets start at 5 minutes, then 4, then 3, until the last set which is a mere 1 minute long. We got that, right?

You can go through this once, for a 15 minute blast, or go through it twice when time - and mojo - permits. I tried and tested this one over the weekend. It burns more than it tickles, but the endorphin rush - and calorie burn - are awesome.

Set 1, 5 Minutes

• Jumping jacks, 1 minute
• Skaters, 1 minute
• Jump squats (add rotation for even more oomph), 30 seconds
• Skaters, 1 minute
• Jumping jacks, 1 minute
• Jump squats, 30 seconds

Set 2, 4 Minutes

• 1 minute diagonal lunges
• 30 seconds burpees

 

• 1 minute diagonal lunges

 

• 30 seconds burpees
• 1 minute in-n-out squats

Set 3, 3 minutes

• 30 seconds of regular pushups
• 30 seconds of chair dips
• 30 seconds of walking planks

 

• 30 seconds of regular pushups
• 30 seconds of chair dips
• 30 seconds of walking planks

Set 4, 2 minutes

• 30 seconds of right-leg jump lunges

 

• 30 seconds of ready-sets
• 30 seconds of left-leg jump lunges
• 30 seconds of ready-sets

Set 4, 1 minute

• 30 second plank

  

• 30 seconds of waist cinchers

 

 

Tuesday Tabata Challenge: Two Tabatas, Two #50BadassReps

Short and sweet: Defined as 5-foot-2 me, after a great endorphin-pumping bootcamp...or better yet, as the ideal workout.

Today's workout challenge is just that - short, sweet and effective! Two Tabata drills for cardio, two #50BadassReps sets, and at less than 15 minutes long it is less time than you'd spend grocery shopping or washing the car. THAT is called #winning, my friends!

Short duration notwithstanding, this will push your muscles and heart rate to the limit. But when you are done, you will feel like you can conquer anything!

Tuesday Tabata Challenge

Warmup

30 seconds each:

• pogo hops side to side
• jumping jacks
• high knees running in place
• mountain climbers

Tabata 1

• Burpees x2

 

• Jump Squats x2
• Burpees x2
• Jump Squats x2

#50BadassReps: Uneven Pushups, 25 right and 25 left

  

Tabata 2

• Jump lunges right side x2
• Jump lunges left side x 2

  

• Burpees x4 (yes, a big push to the finish!)

#50BadassReps: 50 In-n-Out Squats (better for ya than an In-n-Out Burger!)

  

Coming up: A few tips for making hydration a habit ...and not so boring!

In a Fitness Rut? Try This, Instead of That...5 Must-Try Moves!

Badass Rule No. 532: When it starts to feel easy, it's time to kick things up a notch! Our bodies are amazingly strong, stronger than we give them credit for in many cases. And with that strength comes adaptability.

No matter how tough the exercise, running session, or pool workout, if we do it often enough, it's not so tough anymore. And the strength and cardio gains diminish. Teaching 11 classes a week, including several cycling and bootcamp classes, I am hyper-aware of the need to constantly switch things up.

A cycling student last week noted, "Classes seem a lot tougher this past month." Yes, intentionally so. My students are strong, and I can tell when the ride profiles are becoming less of a challenge. Ditto in bootcamp.

So here are 5 moves to try, replacing them with old standards. Incorporate these into your next few workouts, and feel the extra burn!

1. Instead of regular pushups...try Walking Pushups: More movement, more challenging!

  

2. Instead of regular squats, try In-n-Out Squats: Again, more movement in this means you get your heart rate up. Also the lateral movement with the "out" and the "in" portion of this squat fire up the inner and outer thighs and glutes in a stronger way.

 

3. Instead of jumping jacks or jump squats, try....Burpees!:If you have ever done a burpee, you know these are like jumping jacks or jump squats on steroids. I love doing these in sets of 10 in between strength sets at the gym for an extra calorie burn. The higher you jump up on that last part of the burpee, the more you'll work your leg muscles AND your heart.

 

4. Instead of regular crunches...do Starfish Crunches: These Pilates-inspired crunches are far more effective for working the core, including your obliques and lower abdominals.

 

5. Instead of static planks...do waist cincher planks!

 

TGIF 10-Minute Cardio Blaster!

There are 1,440 minutes in a day - even a Friday at the end of a busy week. Ten minutes of that is less than 1 percent of an investment. So today, I challenge you to invest at least that 1 percent. This 10-minute cardio/strength intervals routine kicks to the curb any excuse of "I don't have time."

No matter what, we can find 10 minutes. And you are worth the investment. If you have more time, do an extra round or two of the whole circuit. Once you start, keep moving from one exercise to the next quickly with very short rest if needed. This will keep your heart rate up and keep you at the 10-minute mark.

Enough chatter - blast off the weekend with this Badass Cardio Blaster!

Warmup

• 30 seconds of jumping jacks
• 30 seconds of high knees running in place
• 30 seconds of skaters
• 30 seconds of jumping jacks

Cardio Blast

• 30 seconds of burpees
• 30 seconds of jump squats
• 30 seconds of right-leg lunges
• 30 seconds of left-leg lunges
• 30 seconds of mountain climbers
• 30 seconds of plank hops
• 30 seconds of regular pushups
• 30 seconds of close-grip pushups
• 30 seconds of leap frog jumps
• 30 seconds of frog pushups
• 30 seconds of leap frog jumps
• 30 seconds of floor or chair tricep dip
• 30 seconds of burpees
• 30 seconds of jump squats

 

The family that does frog jumps and planks together...

Saturday morning, amid all the excitement about that record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot, a few of us on our way to running the North Florida Warrior Dash started talking about how we'd spend - or not spend - our theoretical winnings.

My 'spending plan': 1. Open an awesome gym. 2. Establish a fitness foundation that combats childhood obesity by promoting fitness and nutrition among children - no matter their socioeconomic situation. Life is hard enough without having to deal with the emotional and physical toil of being "that kid." It breaks my heart more than anything to see that. Not to mention the fact that our nation's soaring childhood obesity rates will lead to an adult health care epidemic that makes the current deficit look nominal.

The reasons behind childhood obesity are not rocket science. Fast food is a fifth and frequently eaten food group. Video games and TV have replaced playing hide and seek. Soda and sugar water pose as "juice." Kids too often live on processed Franken-foods filled with corn syrup and trans fats.

Yet children inherently like to run around. At Sunday's Easter Egg Hunt 'Bad Donkey' Bootcamp, the youngest bootcampers ran all over The Powermill Sports Facility looking for eggs - then didn't hesitate when I put on my drill sergeant hat and said, "OK! Run around the volleyball court 5 times!" When we did planks, one student's son did them right alongside her.

In some bootcamps, they lunge with us. They do jumping jacks. They do decline pushups and regular pushups. And they have a blast. One client's almost-2-year-old joined her last week in the living room as she did an Insanity workout, planking (there he is at left) and taking milk bottle breaks in between. Sunday, even a 5-month-old squealed with delight as he watched us all running around with his Badass Mama.

Today's workout is designed for sharing with the kids, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren in your lives. Not only does it eliminate your "no childcare" hurdle; it will put all their youthful energy to good use, in the healthiest way possible.

So find your pint-sized workout partner and have fun with this quick session!

Bad Donkey Energy Burner Workout

Warmup:

• Pogo hops, 15 seconds
• Jumping jacks, 15 seconds
• Jumping beans (aka jump squats), 15 seconds
• Reach for the moon (aka jump up with arms overhead), 15 seconds

Round 1:

• Jog up and down a space (ideally 25 yards) 4 times
• Leap frog up one length, then do 10 jumping jacks. Repeat 3 more times, or as much as their attention span allows.
• 20 pushups for you, 10 for the Bad Donkeys

Round 2: Tabata Drill (download and let them use the free timer App on your phone. They'll love it)

• Jumping beans (aka jump squats)x2
• Jumping jacks x2
• Running in place x2
• Skaters x2

Round 3

• Jog up and down a space (ideally 25 yards) 4 times
• Leap frog up one length, then do 10 jumping jacks. Repeat 3 more times.
• 20 pushups for you, 10 for the Bad Donkeys

 Round 4: Tabata Drill

• Jumping Jacks x2
• Tag x2 (run around just like you used to, tagging each other, for each 20-second interval)
• Skaters x2
• Pogo hops x2

Round 5

• 25 crunches
• 15-second plank for them, 30-second for you (If EJ, not even 2, can do it...)
• 25 pull-ins
• Stretch!!!

 

 Coming up: Five ideas for building a Badass Easter Basket...