Morning Workouts

When my Wife and I started eating better and exercising more we had joined a local nutrition club where we learned a lot and we exercised with them as well as at home. They helped us get started but they have moved their club to be closer to where they want to be. I'm very happy for them but I miss the Boot Camp workouts they did weekly.

Since they moved I've had a harder time doing workouts at home. Many of us have busy lives and fitting in a solid 30 to 45 min workout sometimes is hard between helping with homework or cooking dinner or the thousand other things families have to do.

We decided that if we wanted to maintain our level of fitness that we would have to workout at different times during the day, so we joined a gym. My wife goes during her lunch break for a 30 min workout and heads back to the office.

I can go to the gym after work, but I sometimes cook dinner so we plan it out that my afternoon sessions coincide with a slow cooker dinner. What I really enjoy is hitting the gym before work. There are only a handful of people there, I have my pick of the machines and the locker room is cleaner. I only have to get up a half hour earlier and can get in a 45 min workout most days and still get to work on time.

I pack my lunch the night before and put my work clothes in the car. I get up, put on my gym clothes and head straight out. Then I feel good for the whole day and I can still go home and walk the dog after dinner and maybe squeeze in 20 min of yoga for a good end of the day stretch. We still get out on the weekends for hikes and bike rides or just a walk around town when time allows. The goal is to find what works for you.

Find the time to workout when you can, wherever you can, for as long as you can. Just Get Moving!

Push Up Routine

Push-Ups. Yes the most basic of body weight exercises can be the most boring right after sit-ups. I know I should do more of them and most routines can be too difficult for some of us just getting back to this exercise.

One of my personal goals is to be able to pass the Army Fitness Test I had to pass when I was enlisted. That meant being able to do 40 push-ups in under 2 minutes. The Army administers the test differently today giving points to how many reps you do based on your age. You must score 60 points in order to get a pass for the push-up portion of the test.

To get myself back to that "Combat Ready" level, I've tried a new way of doing push-ups.

Its really simple. I started at 8 push-ups, then rest for 8 seconds, then I do 7 push-ups and rest 7 seconds, repeat in descending order until you get to 1. Do the math. 36 push-ups in about 3 min. Based on the current Army fitness test standards for my age group I scored a 70.

Now I was really struggling at the end and you should start where you feel comfortable doing the exercise with the right posture. Continue doing them until you can get through them all, then start at a higher number.

After doing this routine every other day for awhile I should get to 42 push-ups pretty quickly, and that's the passing score of 60 for a 17 to 21 year old. Hooah!

My Workout - Office Abs

During the Winter months its hard to get out at lunch time for a walk or a run and my fitness center is too far away to get a 30 minute workout done during lunch.

I do have space at work to do some simple exercises to keep my abs toned up and I don't feel like I'm wasting the day not getting a workout in.

Below is my 10 min Office Abs Workout.

1 Min 30 Sec: Seated Knee lifts

·         Sit up straight, lift both feet off the floor 3 inches and contract your abs, hold for 10 seconds. Repeat.

1 Min: Seated bicycles

·         Sit on the edge of your chair and lean back some; start moving your legs in a pedaling motion for one minute.

1 Min: Seated Russian twists

·         Sit on your desk or floor, lean back and keep your knees bent and feet off the floor. Hold a water bottle, or clasp your hands together and drop your hands next to your hips to the left, then the right. Repeat for one minute.

1 Min: Front plank

1 Min: Left side plank

1 Min: Right side plank

1 Min: Crunches

1 Min: Leg drop

·       Raise both legs toward the ceiling. Breathe in and tighten your abs. Exhale and slowly lower your legs until they’re about four inches above the floor (or as low as you can go without lifting the small of your back). Pause and breathe in. Breathe out as you raise your legs to the starting position.

1 Min: Scissors

·         Raise both legs toward the ceiling. Keeping them straight, lower your left leg until it’s about six inches off the floor. Lift your head and shoulders off the floor and grasp the back of your right leg, gently pulling it toward you. Switch legs and repeat on other side.

30 Sec: Seated Bicycles 

Rest for 15 seconds between exercises.

If you are feeling ambitious, do a second set with a 1 min rest between sets.

My Workout - Yoga for Beginners

When most guys hear "Yoga", they get this mental image of a bunch of hippies all sitting around, wearing unusual looking clothing and doing odd body poses looking for their "inner peace".  While Yoga for many is a spiritual endeavor as well as a physical one, it is also a great way to mix up your workout routine and add some flexibility back into your life.

How many of you have lower back problems? Yeah, I know, all of you. OK, Personal story time. A few years ago I really messed up my back shoveling snow from the roof of my house one winter. My chiropractor had a hard time adjusting me and finally sent me for x-rays that revealed the issue. See the image after the jump.

My Workout - Calisthenics Routine

I see all the advertisements and commercials for different types of equipment that will help you build the muscle tone you are looking for and have that "Greek God" body. The reality is that you don't need any of that at. Having lean muscle helps burn calories, so the goal is to tone up the muscles and simple calisthenics are easy to do.

I looked back to the Physical Training or PT we did while I was in the Army and decided to put together a routine that you can do with little or no equipment. The only thing specific I use is a small medicine ball, other than that its just your body weight that you are lifting.

I begin this workout with some aerobic warm up, jumping jacks work well for this. Below is the complete routine done in no specific order.

My Workout - Upper Body with weights

The one thing I didn't want to do when I started a fitness plan was to invest in a lot of workout or exercise "devices" to tone up and work the various muscle groups. There are too many of them on the market and some are just too specialized to give a whole body workout.

One of my favorite TV Chefs, Alton Brown, will say the same thing about kitchen utensils, "No Uni-taskers!" Free weights like dumbbells can be used in many exercises so they are the way to go.

So I purchased a basic set of 40 lb dumbbells that have interchangeable weights. I can set them to 8, 15 and 20 lbs each and they allow me to do most toning and upper body exercises. I searched many fitness websites looking for various types of dumbbell exercises that I felt would work the muscle groups I wanted to tone up. I found that there are multiple exercises that will work the same muscles, so I tried many to find the ones I liked.

I do the following exercises in no real order.

• Flat Chest Presses
• Flat Chest Flies
• Seated Shoulder Presses
• Front Arm Raises
• Single Arm Row
• Upright Row
• Hammer Curls
• Triceps Kickbacks

I do a different amount of repetitions depending on the exercise and only two sets total with a minute rest between sets. The amount of repetitions varies as the strength of each of the muscle groups are different. The goal is to work the muscles to near exhaustion, pause, then do the second set. Over time you will increase the number of repetitions per set or even add a third set.

After a thorough upper body workout you should wait a few days before repeating the workout to allow the muscles to rebuild. Perform a good cardio workout or work the lower body over the next day or so and repeat the upper body after two or three days.

The website www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html helped me by not only explaining the various exercises for the different muscle groups, but by providing an animated picture showing how to do each exercise.