Badass Fitness

Five Ideas for Building a Badass Easter Basket

Easter baskets are the stuff of childhood memories, right? All those brightly colored jelly beans and the big, hollow chocolate bunnies. But who says we have to give up Easter baskets just because we're old enough to vote?

I say embrace the Easter basket - but a different kind of Easter basket. Peeps and the like are just empty sugar plus food coloring, after all. You might as well measure out a few cups of sugar and pour it down your throat.

But done right, a Badass-approved Easter basket can be a great gift for your friend or loved one, or even a personal treat to yourself. The Easter basket is a chance to give lots of little treats, and still stay on the path to a leaner, fitter Badass you.

To celebrate the weekend ahead, five Easter basket suggestions:

Adult-worthy chocolate: Not the cheap milk chocolate kind, which is mostly sugar anyway. Instead, splurge on the good dark stuff. Dark chocolate with 65% or higher cacao is higher in antioxidants and lower in sugar, and the flavor is so rich a smaller amount will satisfy.

Paper treats: Who doesn't appreciate a gift certificate to their favorite bicycle shop, healthy cafe or grocer, massage therapist or yoga studio? And the enjoyment will be a lot more lasting - and beneficial - than quickly inhaling a bunch of Peeps.

Sock hops and bunny britches: Well, not literally. But a great pair of cycling or running socks, new kicks for him or a pair of workout pants from her favorite athletic line will fold up pretty nicely into a basket.

Rabbit food: Skip the carrots and celery, because that would just be sort of odd - and lame. Instead, stock up on his favorite post-workout trail mix or energy bar. Fill a basket with the salt and pepper cashews she loves or her favorite flavors of Lara bars. Whatever. But make the basket all about the healthy treats your loved ones love.

 

Healthy baked goodness: If carrots and other rabbit eats are a must, why not go in the form of a healthy breakfast or dessert-for-breakfast treat like a carrot or zucchini bread? It will kick off Easter morning in the yummiest, no-guilt way! My fave is this zucchini-dark chocolate bread. Trust me, there is nothing green and grassy about this deliciousness!

 Coming next week: All-Tabata TRX routine and an all-Tabata bootcamp!

 

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...

 

Bad(Donkey) Lessons from Preschoolers

 

When you're three years old, the world is simple. Cotton Candy is good. Monsters are scary. Jumping on the bed is fun.

The years pass, and as we learn and experience more, life gets more complicated. In many cases, this is for the better. So goes life.

But on a visit this week to the preschool class of my friend's daughter, I got a much-needed reminder in the value of simplicity, balance and spontaneity - specifically when it comes to fitness and nutrition.

I tried to teach them a few things about eating more fruits and vegetables and moving around instead of playing video games or watching TV. But they left me with a few lessons worth remembering, too.

If the future of the Badass Army rests with these cute little Bad(Donkeys), we are fortunate!

Bad (Donkey) Lessons

1. "My mom gives me lots of fruit at lunch every day so I can lift heavier things": Pretty much, right? We eat well to stay strong. And when you're trying to build strength, cotton candy isn't going to cut it. As one of them told me: "Fruit and milk" make your muscles grow stronger.

2. Cars is the best cartoon...and "cars need gas to go fast": Already, they get that cars run on fuel and so do we. I asked them what people need to go fast. "Food in your tummy," one little boy told me. High five!

 

3. Exercise like you did when you were a little kid: We leaped like frogs, stretched like cats, jumped up and down like jumping beans, and squatted and flapped our arms like ducks. And yes, it counts as exercise. Have you ever watched a preschooler or grade schooler run around just "being a kid" for 5 minutes? The amount of energy they expend is incredible. And they're laughing the whole time. Play like a kid. One of the most challenging - and fun - drills we do in my bootcamps is "Play Tag." Which is 30 seconds of...playing tag with a partner.

4. Macaroni and Cheese is a vegetable: Well, not really. But ya know what?  We all have days when we NEED the comfort of mac n cheese. We need it to be a vegetable. So if you have a moment when you really wish you could just snuggle up to your mom or grandma for comfort, go ahead and live a little: Make the mac n cheese, and if you're so inclined, toss in some broccoli or peas with it.

Coming up: A recruit finds new health - and ditches medication - with TRX and bootcamps. And a fave from the Badass Bookshelf.

Badass Techie: A Few Fitness and Health Apps Worth the Download

Let's take a moment of silence to remember the Badass CEO's Blackberry Curve, which suffered an untimely death early Friday morning when it got knocked off the bathroom counter and curved right into my toilet. Gurgle, gurgle, and then buh-bye.

Yet, with loss comes opportunity. Specifically, a new iPhone. I'm still getting used to the sensitive  touchscreen after all those years of Blackberry keypound pounding, but the truth is I have been pondering an iPhone for months - primarily because of one particular app (Fooducate) that is available ONLY on the Droid and iPhone.

Which leads me to today's Badass Techie blog. If you've ever downloaded an App on your BlackBerry, Droid or iPhone, only to be disappointed or even feeling duped, you know that not all Apps are created equal.

Some overpromise and under-deliver. Others fly under the radar for a long time and suddenly get discovered because they're THAT awesome and useful. With input and suggestions from a few fellow Badass Army recruits, I've put together a list of Apps that are worth adding to your arsenal for the Badass Journey to a stronger, healthier you.

I am no doubt missing a few great ones, so please pass along your faves in the comment box below or via email at [email protected]. (And if I reply in what seems like pig latin, forgive me - it's this new touchscreen! ;)

Badass-Worthy Apps

1. Fooducate: If you see me, or anyone, at the grocery store holding their phones up to various food packages, odds are they're having fun with Fooducate. With this free App, you can scan the bar codes on just about any food or drink, and Fooducate spits back a grade along with explanation about why the food got, say a C+ (artificial sweeteners, maybe, or trans fats hidden in there). It also offers healthier alternatives. So if the granola bar you THOUGHT was really healthy gets a D, Fooducate will point you to healthier, higher-rated granola bars.

Warning: This App is really addictive. You will want to scan everything. I have even witnessed it turn into a dinner party game, with friends running around scanning the items in the host's pantry. Pretty comical, actually. Also, sign up for the Fooducate daily blog. I learn something new literally every time I read a new entry.

2. Couch to 5k: Who needs a running coach when, for less than a Venti Starbucks latte, you can go from couch potato to 5K race completer? Couch to 5K, for $2.99, provides running plans that are about half an hour long each, and collectively work to build even the least active among us up to short distance runners. Awesome! I recommend this for new runners, or former runners who haven't been out there for awhile. This App breaks down your training into a very attainable plan.

3. MyFitnessPal: Another freebie! This is a great, easy to use app where you can track your weight goals, daily calorie intake, exercise, calories burned, and even water consumed.  This one also has a 'trainer' that helps you work up to 150 pushups and 200 situps in a row. Badass!

4. MapMyRUN: Log your running progress with this App, which traces your pace, distance and route via GPS. There is motivation in seeing your pace and distance improve, and the iPod link-up is cool, too. It has a nutrition log, and you can even let friends track your running live. Talk about accountability!

5. Fitness Buddy: At the risk of putting myself and fellow trainers out of business, I give big props to this virtual trainer. It is basically a dense exercise book, complete with pictures and descriptions of hundreds of exercises for each muscle group, condensed into your handheld. You can search by muscle group or even use one of the ready-made workout routines, which are available for beginners, intermediate and advanced gym rats. The pictures make this very user-friendly. I love this for anyone who is on the road alot and wants to keep their fitness routine going.

6. Tabata Timer: Tabata drills take 4 minutes each, but it can be challenging to track the 20 seconds on-10 seconds off on your own. Well, if this is the excuse you're clinging to for NOT trying Tabata, this App just blew your excuse out the window. The Tabata Timer comes with sound effects, blowing the whistle when it's time to start your 20 seconds of work and then signaling when it's time for the 10-second rest. It keeps going for all 8 rounds of work, making high-intensity interval training totally foolproof.

Coming Friday: 2 little changes, big results...

Football Tailgate 2011 Survival Guide

If you're human, and all Badasses are, perhaps you have a love-hate relationship with Tailgate Saturdays. The friends, football, 'adult beverages' and tailgate food are what we look forward to through the whole long, hot summer. That's the love part.

The hate part is the speed at which all that alcohol and tailgate food can wreck a Badass' week of healthy eating. By the time the fourth quarter ends, we've effectively been drinking and eating approximately 250 calories per play - but NOT working it off like those players.

A few of you have asked me this week, "How can I have a good time this football season without demolishing a summer of hard work and awesome results?"

I will never profess to have all the answers. But a few overarching tips come to mind, plus practical "eat this, leave that on the grill" guidelines for a happy but not too heavy tailgate.

These are merely 'suggestions,' and in no way meant to put a penalty flag on the glory that is a College Football Saturday! Because let's be for real: Sometimes you just have to celebrate a touchdown with a cocktail or another hot wing (or 5).

Big (Tailgate Snack) Plays

Stay away from the pocket: That buffet table or stadium box countertop lined with food? Strategically position yourself far from it. As in, out of "let me just reach over here and dip another chip" distance.

Come Hungry to Win, not Eat: The quickest way to scarf down too much tailgate is to show up hungry. Skipping breakfast and lunch to "save calories" for later will likely lead to overeating. Eat something somewhat healthy and filling beforehand, whether it's oatmeal for breakfast before noon kickoff or salad for lunch before the 3:30 p.m. game.

The 1-to-1 Fake: For every beer or cocktail, drink 8 ounces of water. You'll consume fewer liquid calories, if only to avoid the 19th trip to the bathroom. Bonus: The less sloshed you are, the more likely you are to resist chili cheese on the hot dog. Some foods just seem more appetizing through blurry eyes.

Tailgate Snacks 101

Chips: Obviously, carrots or even fruit will be less calorically disastrous than a bag of chips, but some chips are better choices than others. Rice Works, The Works, Sun Chips, Pretzel Crisps and a few others are healthier choices - when eaten in moderation - than regular ol' pure potato chips or tortilla chips.  The biggest pitfall is mindless crunching. Know thy serving sizes, no matter the chip. And if your tailgate isn't likely to supply the healthier, option, BYOB(ag).

Dips: Go for hummus or guac (with the healthy fat of avocados) over mayo and sour cream-based dips. Salsa is ideal - low in calories, high in nutritional value thanks to those tomatoes.

The Grill: Turkey burgers or bison burgers are leaner than regular beef, and many varieties of chicken sausage are delicious AND lower in fat and calories than regular beef or pork sausage. Hot dogs don't have much redeeming value nutritionally in my book. Use whole grain sandwich thins or eat them 'naked' (no bun or wrapped in lettuce) to cut carbs and calories. Again, bring these food supplies if the tailgate host won't.

Desserts: You don't have to deny yourself, but watch portions - as in, one cookie, not three; or half a brownie, not the whole gigantic square. By the time dessert rolls around, you might have had enough 'adult beverage' to be feeling less in control of your sweet tooth, so be careful.

Make over your faves: Nachos don't have to be a fat and calorie bomb. Same goes for pizza and chili. Even desserts can be light with full flavor and sweetness.

Remember "85 to 90": Above all, don't beat yourself up on Tailgate Saturday! It's one day. Live a little. The Badass Journey has to be enjoyable. If your Tailgate enjoyment comes via chips and dip or a chili dog, so be it. What counts is this: Eating 85 to 90 percent clean, 85 to 90 percent of the time!

Coming up: The Badass 5-25-50-100 Challenge...

From 'Bad Donkey' to Badass...

This is a blog about Austin and little Sal and Ellie and Ava and Jacqueline. This is a blog about the youngest recruits in the Badass Army. This is a blog about  "Bad Donkeys" on their way to "Badass."

Some of them are still too small to fit on an indoor cycling bike or hold a Resist-a-Ball. But they're proving the power of fitness and health at any age.

This month, I watched little Sal work his way through my entire 45-minute TRX class. I watched Ava turn the TRX into a rope climb and use Bosus as an obstacle course of little trampolines. Later that day, she told the ladies at the nail salon that she just got done "working out." Jacqueline, not even old enough for preschool, pulled on the IndoRow alongside her mom. Austin, 9, did the same - for 30 minutes, right beside his mom and grandmother.

Ellie, spunky daughter of a training client, showed my Badass Boot Camp students how to do a pike pushup. The next week, she came to class and rowed. She showed me how to use a hula hoop - one of the best core workouts around. Before she left the studio that morning, she had a studio T-shirt, business cards and a new title: KidFit Coordinator.

She and the other little Badasses....er...BadDonkeys... all had fun. And it didn't involve sitting on their butts in front of a Playstation or a television. It didn't involve eating junk food or drinking soda. It was healthy fun, fitness fun. It was something they did with their parents and grandparents.

I hope it planted a seed that will, in the years to come, prevent them from becoming yet another statistic of childhood (and then teen and adult) obesity. If you're an adult trying to make exercise part of your life after years of inactivity, you know how challenging that is. So why not involve your children, nieces and nephews now? Why not make exercise a part of their daily routine today, so that they don't have to be 50 pounds overweight and 35 years old before they get on the road to Badass?

Childhood obesity, and the diabetes and other health complications that come with it, are a huge epidemic. Children should not need cholesterol medication or be so overweight that they have knee problems. They should not struggle to walk up a few flights of stairs.

So as a new week begins and you start thinking about how to make 2011 better than 2010, this is my challenge to you and the little ones in your life: Get moving. And bring them along with you.

Coming this week: From the Badass Bookshelf - a self-described 'Fatty' finds both pain and humor during a yearlong struggle to lose 50 pounds.

 

Badass Lessons from the Football Field

So my Gators lost to LSU on Saturday, and in a really painful last-minute, end-of-the-fourth-quarter-when-we-were-up-by-3 kinda way. Eff. Yeah, it sucked.

But even in loss, we Badasses have to find lessons. And as I watched the game, I kept thinking that many of the habits and strategies our favorite teams and players use each weekend are worth mimicking in the Badass Journey.

So as another week and another countdown to football gameday begins, consider:

Gridiron Badass 101:

1. Always warm up: On football game days, we "warm up" by tailgating. But the players are out there, throwing passes, running, jogging in place with high knees, etc. Warming up before a workout - whether it's a game-day workout or your typical morning routine - is key. All it takes is 5 minutes of light cardio - jogging, the elliptical, a brisk walk on the treadmill, a light pedal on the bike - to get the blood flowing to all those about-to-be-pumped muscles.

2. Know your enemy: The best teams know their enemies inside and out. They study game tapes, they get to know their signature plays and styles of offense and defense.

We Badasses need to know our enemies so that we can fend them off. Mine is candy and lack of sleep. Sometimes, it's chocolate - and my inability to sack it into oblivion. What's your enemy? Maybe it's that little voice that gives you all sorts of excuses for why you should not be working out today. (I'm so busy, I'm so tired, I'm so big anyway it's too late.) Maybe it's tailgate food and beer. Whatever it is, know it and devise a few "plays" to get past the enemy. Because once you do, the goal line (aka victory) is on the other side.

3. Make the stadium your gym: If you have a college or high school football stadium near you, then you have access to the best outdoor gym there is. The possibilities inside a football stadium are endless: Sprints, stadiums, pushups, tricep dips, step-ups, dropsies, cardio drills (mountain climbers, high knees, fast feet, side shuffles). I do them just about every weekend with my Badass Boot Camp "soldiers," and they'll tell you it's an hour of no-mercy Badass whoopin'.  All without a single dumbbell, Smith machine or leg press machine. If it's good enough for the players, it's good enough for us.

4. Fuel with a purpose: My friend's son just started as a top recruit for college basketball, and the first thing coaches did was put him on a 5,000-calorie-a-day regimen of healthy, whole foods and lots of protein - all to add about 15 pounds to his 6-foot-7 frame. Most of us don't need 5,000 calories a day (though that might be fun for a few days, right??!?), but we do need to pair exercise with a healthy eating routine. Results are 85 to 90 percent what we eat, not exercise, so fuel is key to a leaner, stronger Badass.

One of the big changes for the FSU Seminoles this year has been in what the players eat - whole, organic foods that are tailored for each player's needs. A 300-pound lineman doesn't need the same daily diet that a 185-pound running back needs, so know what your Badass needs to be its best. And eat the processed junk sparingly. Because if football players ate the way we tailgate, the scoreboard probably wouldn't be so pretty.

5. Hydrate: This lesson is brought to you by the Gainesville university that brought you Gatorade. When players are dehydrated, they cramp up and either collapse in a muscle spasm or limp off the field like a shot deer. And the coaches promptly pump them with water, Gatorade, electrolytes. We're not suiting up for ESPN Game Day, but we need to hydrate, too, or our performance will suffer. So drink up. (I prefer coconut water.)

6. Never give up, even when it feels like you're losing: There are days when we just don't feel like staying on the Badass path, right? The alarm goes off and it seems too early. Happy Hour seems like more fun than a Happy Hour cycling class. Pizza seems more tantalizing than grilled salmon with spinach. And it's OK to give in sometimes, but never think that one wayward step makes you a game-day loser. We all fall, and we all can get right back up and keep working toward a win - whether the "win" is a 5K personal best or a 5-pound weight loss. Next time you feel like throwing in the towel, remember how many times your team came from behind to win.

7. Always have the goal line in sight: Players know exactly where they're going: Over the 1-yard line and into touchdown territory. We have to know where we're going, too. We have to keep in sight our reasons for doing all these exercises and making all these healthy meals. The goal is what drives football players, and it has to be what drives us.

Coming Wednesday: Abs-olutely Essentials.

 

Your Badass Tailgate and post-Tailgate survival guide!

T.G.I. FOOTBALL!!!!!!

Thursday marked the "soft opening" of college football season, and this weekend marks the grand kickoff! (Let me insert a very loud "Go Gators!!!" right here...) 

You Badasses know what the college football season brings: Tailgates of Terrific Excessiveness. Yep. Burgers, hot dogs, large amounts of beer and liquor, chips, cookies, more chips, cheese dip, wings with blue cheese sauce, and the list goes on.

Not that there's anything wrong with all that. I am a big advocate of balance, and that means we get to enjoy the finer things in life. For me, that means game-day tailgate goodies. And if you set up your playbook the right way, you can enjoy plenty of delicious food without fully wrecking that week's clean eating.

Or, you can indulge to your heart's content and sweat it out later - literally.

So as you prepare to enjoy this first full weekend of college football (Go Gators!), here is a guide to making the lesser of evil food choices and then getting those Badasses back into gear once the hangover clears.

Recipe for a Badass Tailgate

• Bison burgers
• Turkey burgers
• Turkey or chicken sausages
• Shannon's Badass Feta-Guac
• Baked tortilla chips with salsa
• Pita chips and hummus
• Greek Nachos (best for at-home football watching)
• Light beer (I love Mich Ultra or Bud Light Lime)
• Vodka-soda with lime (75 calories!)


Workouts for Post-Tailgate Recovery

1. Hot yoga: Sometimes, you've just got to sweat it out!

2. A kick-butt head-to-toe routine : In no time at all, you can sweat and squat away that food fog.

 

3. A long cycle: This is my favorite. Give me my iPod and my RealRyder bike, and I am golden!

• Bamboleo, Gypsy Kings, 3:23: Warmup in the saddle. Light tension. Stay loose and relaxed on tops. Find your groove on the bike.
• Jump, Madonna, 3:59: Continue warmup. Add a slight amount of tension, enough to come up out of the saddle into a standing run. Up for 30 seconds, seated for 30 seconds. Repeat for the entire song, keeping a steady quick pace.
• La Grange, ZZ Top, 3:52: Begin the first climb with rolling rolls in the saddle. Add a turn or two until you're at a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 tension. That's your base. After 20 seconds, add a full turn and keep pumping, trying to maintain the same pace through the tension for 20 seconds. Take off what you just added, cycle for 20 seconds, then add back that full turn. Repeat the pattern for the whole song, ending at the base tension of 5.
• Vertigo, U2, 3:15: Keep climbing! Add one full turn. This is your base. From here, add a half turn every 30 seconds for the duration of the song. Extra challenge: Add speed, through the heavy tension, during the chorus. Quad burn...
• Break Your Heart, Taio Cruz, 3:05: Flat road and endurance! Turn the tension back toward the left until you find a fairly flat road. A 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, now that your legs are warm. Pick a pace that is fast but not a sprint. Hang onto it for the full three minutes.
• Morning After Dark, Timbaland, 4:53: Jumps from seated to standing climb with moderate tension. Add tension back until you find a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. The pattern is 16-second counts in the saddle with the tension, and then move into a standing climb position. So count 16 seconds, then walk your hands out to the end of the handlebars and let the rest of you follow until you're climbing out of the saddle. Your nose should be right at the middle of the handlebars, not out beyond them. Butt is back over the wide part of the saddle. Stay here for 16 seconds, then sit back down for 16 seconds. Then standing climb for 16 seconds. Go for the whole song, resting when you need to. Extra challenge: Speed up some of the jumps to 8-counts and 4-counts.
• Breathe Me, Sia, 4:37: Back uphill for a long climb! From where you were in song 6, add a half turn. Every 20 seconds, bump the tension up slightly, for a total of 10 turns. It will get very heavy. Push through, being careful to take care of your knees. Come back down the same way, bumping the tension back slightly every 20 seconds for a total of 10 times. Stay here through the end of the song.
• Cloud Nine, Evanescence, 4:22: Keep climbing. This time, it's a steady climb to the top. Add a big turn. Climb in the saddle for 1 minute. Add another turn and climb for another minute, trying to keep the same steady strong pace. Come out of the saddle into a standing climb if you need a saddle break or to get back your momentum. Then go right back to the saddle. By the time the song ends, you should be at a 9 or 10 in tension.
• Shut it Down, Pitbull, 3:46: Back to a flat road for 1 minute. Flush the legs out. At minute 2, add a bit of tension back and go into a standing run for 30 seconds. Go back to the saddle for 30 seconds, then back into a standing run. Keep it up for the whole song.
• Imma Be, Black Eyed Peas, 4:17: One more push up! Add back tension until you find an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Keep climbing until about 2 1/2 minutes in when the song pace picks up. At that point, go back to a flat road and speed it up at a race pace to the finish line. Hang onto that pace through the end. You've come too far to give up now!
• My Way, Los Lonely Boys, 4:26: Cool it down with a victory lap! Find a flat road and just keep pedaling, flushing your legs out. Take deep breaths as your heart rate comes down. Stretch!

 4. A long run: Use the treadmill or go outside. I'm thinking I might need a good track workout. Try this one...

Warmup

1. Jog 2 laps around the track, or 800 m

2. Skip-run forward for 50 m, then jog for 50 m

3. Jog backward for 50 m, then turn around and jog forward for 50 m

4. Karaoke run for 50 m, then jog forward for 50 m

Repeat 2, 3, and 4 once more

Track Segment

1. Run a 400, or one lap, at 5K pace. The goal: Finish it within 90 seconds, or cloe to it. This isn't an all-out sprint because you need to get all the way around the track. But it's fast, and you should be winded when you're done.

2. Rest for 2 minutes, walking fast around the track.

3. Run another 400, at the 5K pace.

4. Run a 100-m sprint, as fast as you can. Rest for one minute.

5. Run another 100-m sprint. Rest for one minute.

6. Repeat the track circuit one more time ( So 2 more 400m at 5K pace, and 2 more 100 m sprints)

Now get out there and make your team proud! Tailgate like a Badass!

Coming Monday: It's Labor Day! So I'll see you all Wednesday.

Every (Badass) Thing You Need to Know, You Learned in Kindergarten

'Tis the season for buying school supplies, packing lunches and meeting the teacher. Yes, the summer is already over and school's back in!

Life was so much simpler in grade school, wasn't it? Kindergarten especially. What I wouldn't give to have THAT schedule again: storytime, ABC's, snacktime, recess, lunchtime, naptime, more recess, snack, show and tell.

Memories of kindergarten, and seeing my friends' little ones gear up for a new year, got me thinking about the lessons learned early on. Turns out, we were taught in kindergarten all we needed as our foundation for the Badass Journey.

It's easy to forget, though, as we get all "grown up and busy." So in honor of my cousin Miles (there we are, top left, about to go ice skating this past January) and my favorite little spunky Badass (er, "Bad Donkey") Ava McKown (who is a year away from kindergarten but already likes to "work out" and report back to "Miss Shannon"), I present to you Badass soldiers a reminder:

All the (Badass) Things You Learned in Kindergarten

1. Play nice: All of those 'good manners' rules your first teacher taught you still apply, especially in the gym or on the playing field or court. Don't be rude, obnoxious, or selfish. Put away your "toys" (dumbbells, weight plates, etc) when you're finished, and share the equipment. It makes the experience better for everyone.

2. Take naps: If you're anything like the average American, you don't get enough sleep. Naps are not a feasible option for many of us, me included. But getting more shut-eye should be high on your priority list - you'll perform better at work and fitness, and your hunger levels will be a lot steadier.

3. Read a lot, limit TV: Watching TV all the time is a metabolism-killer. Yes, you actually burn more calories reading than watching TV. And a bad TV habit means you're wasting time in front of the tube that could be spent MOVING those Badasses. We often limit the kids' TV time, so why not limit our own? while they're reading Dr. Seuss, you can be reading up about history or politics or good fiction, or even fitness. 

4. Snacks are good: We can take a cue from the snacks we feed the little ones. Apples and peanut butter, string cheese, bananas, raisins, graham crackers - they're all good fuel for the Badass Army, pre- and post-workout. And the kids' schedule of eating smaller meals every few hours is one to adopt - the smaller, more frequent meals keep our 'furnaces' burning and our metabolism humming.

5. Share with others: Why keep it all to yourself? Share what you know and learn about the Badass journey with others. That's what this Badass Fitness blog is all about. Share your workout time, too, because having a partner keeps you both accountable. If you know someone is there waiting for you to go running before dawn or to lift weights before work, you're much less likely to hit "snooze" when the alarm goes off.

6. Fidget. Monkey around: I'm a fidgeter. I tap my toes, I get up and down. I move a lot, and I move fast. Studies have shown that people who fidget tend to be more lean, overall. So if you don't already fidget, start making it a habit. Just like the kindergartners who fidget 10 minutes into storytime, we can do ourselves a favor by being antsy. We can also follow their lead by just monkeying around. Kids tend to be fearless, right? They'll run around, climb, try new toys, without hesitation. All the while, they're burning off all those graham crackers they just ate.

7. Drink milk: Many of us drank milk like water as kids, and then somewhere along the way we stopped. But skim milk is chock full of protein and bone-strengthening calcium, and studies show that the ideal fuel after an endurance workout like cycling or distance running is not Gatorade or a protein shake. It's chocolate milk. Yep, that's right. Researchers say the high carb and protein content in milk make it very effective as a recovery drink. Stick to the skim or lowfat chocolate variety, and enjoy that chocolatey goodness just like whe you were a kid!

8. Baby your boo-boos: When our Badasses are injured, they're telling us something. They need recovery time. They need rest. They need our patience and perseverence. As an impatient Type A, I know this is difficult - especially whe it feels like the injury or the muscle fatigue is hampering or slowing down the pace of our Badass journey. But in the long run, it's better to go slow for a little while than to ignore what our Badasses are telling us.

9. Eat your vegetables: Yes, our moms were right. So was Popeye with his whole "eat spinach" mantra. The food we put into our Badass Temples is 85 to 90 percent of the equation. We can exercise every morning and every night, but if we're feeding ourselves with junk in between, we will not see the results we want. So find a way to like vegetables, or at least tolerate them. Keep your food clean, and your Badass will be a lot more lean.

10. Have fun: How can we be expected to persevere through something we dread? The key to staying on the Badass path is to find the right path for you. Know thyself. If you hate running, don't make that your daily exercise. Do something you enjoy, and make it part of your fitness. Same goes with eating. Yes, milk is good. But if you hate it, find another way (spinach, for example) to get your calcium. Find what works for you. Find what makes you smile. Find joy in fitness. Find your inner 5-year-old.

Coming Wednesday: A Routine for Sculpting that Badass

Back to the track with your Badass selves!

Badass CEO Confession: I think I'm getting addicted to the local high school track. It's right around the corner from my place, and it keeps whooping my Badass. Which is a very good thing!

Badass Foodie and I went Friday after work, and I decided afterward that there is really no better way to blow off a stressful, busy week than to run, and run, and sprint, and sprint some more. 

We did a repeat of the track workout I posted on Badass Fitness last week, but as we went through the hourlong routine I started thinking of ways to mix it up and kick it up. (Yes, I'm kinda twisted that way, but you know you all love it!)

So here's another track workout, my gift to the Badass Army! Do two track workouts a week, throw in a couple of the weight routines I've shared, and imagine how smokin' strong you're gonna look and feel when the summer heat really kicks in!

The Warmup

1. Jog 2 laps, or 800 m, around a standard high school or college track: Go at a steady jog pace. This is a warmup, so the goal is just to get the blood flowing and loosen up those muscles.

2. 100 m of karaoke, or grapevine runs, followed by a jog back to the start: This is a sideways drill in which your torso and shoulders stay facing forward as you run sideways, your feet shuffling in a grapevine. Check out a good video how-to here.

3. 100 m of skip-jog, with high knees: Skip forward, raising your knees high to warm up and stretch the hip flexors. (Below, right) Jog back to the start. 

4. 100 m of backward running, followed by a jog back to the start. (Below, left)

Repeat the grapevine, skip-jog and backward-jog drills two more times for a total of three. And be sure to alternate directions on the grapevine runs to ensure you're warming up the hips and hip flexors on both sides.

The Workout

1. 3 sets of 400 m, or once around the track, at a 5k pace. The goal: Finish each 400 m within 90 seconds. Between each set, take a 2-minute rest.

2. Sprint 2 sets of 100 m. Take a 1-minute rest between each set.

3. 3 sets of 400 m,  or once around the track, at a 5k pace. Same goal: 90 seconds. Same rest in between each: 2 minutes.

4. Sprint 2 sets of 100 m. Take a 1-minute rest between each set.

5. Do regular lunges halfway around the track. Drop and do 20 pushups. Lunge the rest of the way. Repeat one more time.

6. 1 set of 400 m at a moderate pace. Rest one minute.

7. Sprint 1 set of 100 m.

The Cooldown

1. Walk the track for one to two laps, or 400 m to 800 m.

2. Do 5 to 10 minutes of stretches, your choice.

Coming tomorrow: An addiction that brings zero guilt!!!