Don’t have much time? Can you spare 4 minutes? Great I thought so. Check out this tough 4 minute workout that will torch fat and leave you sweating. Want a little more? Then repeat it 2-3 times.
If you are part of my Fit Moms For Life DVDs, you are familiar with this type of training for our cardio section of the DVD workouts. Even though it only lasts a couple minutes, I have been told and also believe it to be the most challenging part of any workout.
FYI, this video was shot about 2 years ago! I wasn’t too comfortable on camera back then 
You will notice that this is pretty high impact, so if you have bad knees or other joints you need to cut the intensity down or pick lower impact exercises.
The possibilities of different exercises are endless if you have a knowledge of the body and how it moves in addition to a little creativity. In this CBS episode I show some exercises you can do on a picnic table. My guest today is Emily a Fit Fun Bootcamp veteran of over two years. Like we mention in the video, she is 48 years old, but doesn’t look a day over 35. Her positive energy and enthusiasm is contagious and we are very blessed to have her in our bootcamps.
Question of the day: What are some fun workouts you do outside?
Summer is in full swing and finding places to workout while you are with your kids becomes important. Playgrounds can provide an great array of equipment that you just can’t find in your house. Marsue, my trainer for the Oregon and McFarland Fit Fun Bootcamps, puts together insane playground workouts using bands, ropes, and TRXs (I might try to film a video sometime of her doing this). But sometimes you don’t have any equipment at all, so I have put together 3 exercises that you can do at the playground. Sure you might get some looks and some negative comments, but usually you don’t want to look or feel like the person that is doing the ridiculing or staring.
My little brother was in town and he made his TV debut. I think he did very good! He is a great example of not letting genetics be an excuse to getting in shape. All through high school he was about 6’4 and only weighed 160 lbs and got made fun of for it. The past few years he has changed his diet and works out extremely hard and has put on about 50 lbs of muscle and now weighs 15 lbs more than me and is quite a bit stronger than me.
A couple more of my favorite playground exercises are:
-Knee tucks on the swing: Be in a pushup position, hands on the ground and feet up in the swing. Pull the knees into the chest.
-Swing rollouts: Put your forearms in the swing and kneel on the ground, slowly lean forward straightening out your arms. This works the deep core.
-Dips on parallel bars: This is more advanced but you put your hands on two parallel bars and lower your body down until your shoulders are at your elbow height, and then press back up.
Do You Have Any Ideas, Suggestions, Or Comments About the Playground Workouts?
One of the biggest reasons Fit Fun Bootcamps has been such a big hit (besides the great results and community that is built) is the fun and unique factor. In this video I have two bootcampers Lauren and Amy who have been coming to Fit Fun Bootcamp for about 9 months and have seen some incredible toning and increases in their athletic performance.
Check it out.
Pushing cars is a great family activity that the kids love to do as well. Plus you will never be worried about running out of gas again because you know you can push it
If you are doing this with kids, please be safe and push on a flat area and make sure someone is near the brake in case something happens.
Here is another video I found from over a year ago in MamaTone Class where the moms are working hard to push a big SUV up the hill. My mom was in town and did the filming which explains the shakiness
Awhile back I introduced you to an amazing mom who have transformed her body through the Fit Moms For Life DVDs. She transitioned herself from a long distance runner who was frustrated about not being able to lose her last 20 pounds, to a mom of three little kids who is now in the best shape of her life and extremely toned! Click here to read her entire story.
She has a very strong background in running, so I have asked her to share with you a running plan that can also incorporate resistance training. Karen has been interning with me the past 5 months and is now a certified trainer and will be opening up my brand new Fit Fun Bootcamp location in Waunakee! I am super excited to have her as a trainer. So if you know anyone in the Waunakee area, mark your calendars for May 3rd, the first day of outdoor bootcamp!
Incorporating Strength Training Into a Running Plan
Karen before, very active and fit, but not as toned as she would like
My name is Karen Endres and I am an avid fitness runner, track and cross country coach and currently studying to become a personal trainer. I have completed many, many distance races including a marathon. While training for long runs, I often noticed that I gained weight and did not see the muscle definition I desired and expected after logging 100′s of miles. After the birth of my third daughter in 2008, I immediately jumped back into running but was not seeing the weight loss results I desired. I then turned to strength training and burst/interval training. The results were more than expected, weight loss and five minutes off my 5K run time.
Strength training is one of the most important things you can do to enhance your running program. Whether you are training for a 5K, 10K or half-marathon by incorporating weights you will experience the following benefits:
1. Improve your race time(s).
2. Prevent injuries.
3. Help control/lose weight.
Depending on the length of race you are training for and the amount of time you have each week, I recommend adding 2-3 days of strength training to your running program. The type of strength training in Fit Moms For Life, Bootcamps and MamaTone classes will provide you with strong, long and lean muscles that will not only complement your running but take you to the next level.
Karen after 8 months of Fit Moms For Life Weight Training and Interval Training Workouts and 20 lbs lighter
Strength training will improve your race times. In my 10 years of experience as a running coach, the athletes that work on muscle and core strength have the most improvement in their performances. Stronger muscles help in many areas of running. You can execute proper running form more consistently and longer. A strong core allows you to drive your legs forward and up with more power. Using a weight training program that moves quickly through the exercises improves your overall cardio conditioning as well.
If you are only running, you will find certain muscles get very strong like your quadriceps while others stay weak such as your hamstrings. Incorporating strength training and core exercises will help you keep all muscle groups strong. This helps your performance but more importantly will help keep you injury free.
As Dustin has said many times on this blog, long distance cardio does not effectively burn fat. Strength training and running bursts/intervals increase the fat burn and therefore help you to maintain or lose weight while training for a run. An additional benefit is bursts/intervals help teach your muscles to react faster and turnover quickly therefore increasing your running pace. You can’t just decide to run faster, you need to teach your muscles the proper form and how to turnover.
Adding strength, core and interval/burst training will bring great results to your fitness program. Whether you are looking to race a 5K or complete at half-marathon. These elements will keep you healthy and running stronger than ever. Good luck and run hard.
Sample Workout Week
5K Training incorporating strength and core. A few things to keep in mind. To prevent injury do not add running miles too quickly. The commonly known rule of thumb is to increase your weekly mileage by no more than 10%. The running workouts below can be adjusted to fit your mileage goals for the week.
Day 1
5K Interval Ladder Run
(If using a treadmill use a slight incline 2% – 4%. If running outdoors, use a varied terrain.)
4 minute warm-up – comfortable pace where you could hold a conversation (example – 6mph)
18 minutes of 1 minute intervals (1 minute interval & 1 minute at resting pace)
1 minute @ 7
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 7.5
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 8
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 8.5
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 9
1 minute @ 6
Now walk the ladder back down (9, 6,8.5, 6, 8, 6, 7.5, 6, 7, 6)
2-4 minute cool-down to get you to a total mileage of 3.25
Day 2
30 – 40 minutes of Strength Training & Core
Day 3
20 minute Interval Run
(If using a treadmill use a slight incline 2% – 4%. If running outdoors, use a varied terrain.)
5 minute warm-up – comfortable pace where you could hold a conversation (example – 6mph)
10 minutes of 30 second intervals (30 second interval & 30 seconds at resting pace)
30 seconds @ 7.5
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 8
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 8.5
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 9
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 9.5
30 seconds @ 6
Now walk the ladder back down (9.5, 6,9, 6, 8.5, 6, 8, 6, 7.5, 6)
5 minute cool-down
Day 4
30 – 40 minutes of Strength Training & Core
Day 5
Hill Workout (approximate distance 5K)
1 mile warm-up
10 minutes of hills
Run up a hill hard for 30 seconds & walk or jog down
(if on a treadmill use a 10% incline and challenging speed but that you can recover in about 35 – 45 seconds)
1 mile cool-down
Day 6 (optional)
30 – 40 minutes of Strength Training & Core
Additional running workouts to rotate in.
Out and Back
Run out 1.5 miles and run the same course back to where you started by take 2 minutes off your time for the return run.
15 Second Interval
Same as the 30 second interval run but change the interval to 15 seconds. Keep the rest at 30 seconds but increase the incline and start your first interval at a faster mph.
Race Pace Training Run (3.5 to 4 mile run)
5 minute warm-up
Approximately 24 minutes
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
5 – 10 minute cool-down
Do you have any running questions for Karen, post your questions below!
I am just getting back from an amazing trip to Vegas where I got mentored by 5 of the top fitness professionals in the world! I had to pay over $10,000 to be part of this year long group, but I know the teaching and lessons I am getting from them are priceless and it WILL and already has made me a better trainer and a person! If you aren’t getting coached in the areas of life that you want to improve upon I highly recommend it! I will be speaking at a one day seminar called “Expand Your Success,” on May 15th. Tickets were originally $199, but since I am speaking I am able to get you tickets for $99 and you can bring a friend for free! I will of course be speaking on fitness, there will be other great coaches presenting on nutrition, finance, fashion, and motivation. I would love to see you there! Click here for more details.
For some of you this post is going to be too late for spring break, but I was recently on NBC sharing some last minute tips you can do to get ready for that spring break vacation you may be taking or if you need to slip into a small sized dress. I try to get my clients to go on a low carb, low sodium diet, while drinking plenty of water. I have found this to be the best way to get rid of water retention and bloating. I get them toconsume plenty of lean proteins and healthy fats and just eat enough complex carbs and fruit to give them enough energy.
Check out the video!
What are your favorite last minute tricks before you go on vacation?
I have a very special treat for you today! The past few months I have become friends with a professional athlete named Jessi Stensland. If you follow triathlons at all, you certainly know her name. She contacted me when she was in town a couple months ago as she was touring the country teaching her workshops teaching average joes like you and me how to run better and how core strength plays a huge role in performance and health of the body.
She has worked with the highest level sports performance coaches in the world and knows more about the body than I probably ever will in my lifetime. Check out this video we did at one of my bootcamps and learn how you can become more aware of your core and posture.
Here is an email I received from Jessi, I highly recommend going if you like to run:
Touching base – Madison MovementU workshops are coming up next weekend, March 27-28th. GOT RUNNERS?? Saturday is perfect eye opener – 12-5pm – about the body and running form. It’s been amazing to see people of all levels blown away about how much they DON’T know about running form and how to put into play some pretty basic principles to take so much stress off their body and mind – when training for running and triathlon…As I mentioned when we met – the way the workshops are designed – they are super complimentary to the efforts of trainers and coaches as they empower athletes w/ a better understanding of their body and the relating all their hard work in the gym directly to their swim, bike, and run efficiency and injury resistance.
Saturday’s half day workshop is focused on movement/lecture and running form and function. Sunday’s full day event is the same but finishes up with swim, bike and recovery techniques in the second half. All details are online at www.movementu.com.
Anyone you know who’s training for a running race, triathlon, or thinking about it – and you feel they could benefit – let em know.
Save $30 when you register for the full day event with code: DUSTINMAHERFITNESS
Check out this video that will help you find your inner core and improve posture!
If you have a question about running, post a comment in the box below and I will try to get Jesse to respond to you currently.
Also I got Jessi to give away a FREE pass to this great event, so write down in the box below why you would like to go learn from the best, and I will be selecting a winner tomorrow.
Amber "After" with more zest for life and confidence!
I am going to begin to feature more of my clients who really go at the eating and exercise 100% and get quite quick results. I don’t want to make it sound like this is going to happen to everyone, but looking at what those who are successful can be a big help to see what might work for yourself. So in the upcoming weeks, I will ask some of my clients to share their exact food journal as well as workout plan. I hope that you will be able to take small tips and tricks and apply them into your eating and exercise life.
I would like to introduce you to Amber, she has been coming to Fit Fun Bootcamps for 1 month now and has lost 13 lbs. It is very impressive to see the toning that is occurring all throughout her body and the many many inches she is losing. She had less than 20 lbs to lose total, so for her to lose this much the first month really shows how hard she has worked and how nearly perfect she has been with her eating. When I first met her and asked what her goals were, I could tell the spark wasn’t there in her life, she wasn’t happy and not in a good place. A little more than 1 month later she is a completely different person, her spark is back and she exudes confidence now, which as a trainer, is SO great and exciting to see! She has made a 180 degree change.
Amber is going to let you in on what she did exactly! So check it out.
Food Journal
I stick to the the same meals/snacks for the most part, and add new snack ideas every week.
Day 1
Meal 1 (after I workout, around 7:45am):
2 Eggs (I now buy the cage free organic; they taste MUCH better, too) with spinach and tomatoe
1 Slice of oatmeal toast (the first three ingredients are filtered water, whole wheat flour, and enriched wheat flour)
Should I buy a different kind? Yes I would recommend Ezekial Bread
1 cup coffee (No sugar added and I STOPPED putting half and half in
Meal 2 (around 11am)
Apple slices with 10 almonds
Meal 3 (around 2pm)
2 Wasa crackers with hummus and turkey slices
Meal 4 (around 5pm)
3 oz of chicken
Spaghetti squash
Green beans and cauliflower
Day 2
Meal 1
1/2 cup oatmeal with dried sweetened cranberries and a little brown sugar
2 Eggs with salsa
1 cup of cofee
Meal 2
Banana with peanut butter
Meal 3
2 Wasa crackers with turkey slices, grape slices and tomato slices
Meal 4
3 oz of chicken
1/2 cup brown rice
Broccoli
Meal 5
Soynuts with raisins and m&m’s
Day 3
Meal 1
2 Eggs with albacore tuna and tomato
1 cup coffee
Meal 2
Strawberry banana shake made with peanut butter
Meal 3
Apple slices with peanut butter
Meal 4
3 oz chicken
1/2 sweet potato
Day 4
Meal 1
2 Eggs with spinach, tomatoes, and salsa
1 Cinnamon raisin english muffin
1 cup coffee
Meal 2
Banana with peanut butter
Meal 3
Soynuts with raisins
Meal 4
3 oz chicken
1/2 cup brown rice
Broccoli
Meal 5
Green tea
1 Spring roll with peanut sauce (I waitress at a Thai/Lao restaurant right now….green tea has been my savior on work nights) More on How Amber Lost 13 lbs in 4 Weeks!
I am very excited to share with you my first national TV feature. I flew out to NYC and filmed this piece for Parents TV. I don’t have Comcast Cable, but for those of you who do (which is 15 million houses nation wide), you can find my segment running for the next couple weeks under the parents segment on demand.
This segment is also fun for me to look back at the past couple years and see how I have grown as a person, and on camera. I believe that this is the first of many opportunities I will have to share my love and passion for fitness with a very large audience!
Thanks to Parents TV for making me feel welcome and treating me so well during the video shoot!
I am sure by now you are aware of the Fit Moms For Life program, but if you are looking for a home workout program that doesn’t have the cheesyness you see in many workout dvds, then be sure to click here to learn more. We give the first DVD and CD away for free in order to let you sample the monthly program.
I am super excited to share a story with you of one of my many success stories so far from the Fit Moms For Life DVDs. Her name is Karen, and she has been so transformed (not only outwardly), that she has quit her corporate America job and has begun an internship program with me and is taking a personal training certification to help transform the lives of so many, similarly to how she has been transformed.
Karen turned her flabby size 6-8 body, into a very toned size 2-4. She had always been a long distance runner and suffered what many of the distance runners who run a lot, but don’t do weights; which is a healthy weight, but above average body fat with very little muscle tone. Karen is now pretty jacked up and toned. She will be writing a couple more articles with specific training programs to combine the weights with a running program to help improve your 5K or 10K. With those articles, she will share with everyone her before and after pic!
I don’t want this post to be so much about how great my Fit Moms For Life DVDs or my Fit Fun Bootcamps are, but rather show YOU the power of creating a well rounded body. You are fooling yourself if you think just running for exercise is a great total body workout, or just swimming, or just biking, or just doing xy or z. You need to work ALL muscles from ALL different directions to ensure a body that not ony functions well but looks good too!
So here is Karen’s post!
Stronger, faster, thinner and healthier are the best words to describe the results I have experienced participating in Fit Moms For Life. I have been an avid runner for most of my life running 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon races. Running kept me “in shape” through college and three pregnancies yet small injuries, stagnant race times and the dreaded muffin top were frustrating me.
As a coach of middle school and high school runners, I knew if I was going to tackle these issues, I needed to work on core strength and strength training. Yet, as a busy Mom of three young girls, 7, 5 and 18 months fitting in a class or a joining a health club wasn’t an option for me. As luck would have it, Dustin was holding a Mama Tone class in a shared gym while my daughter took gymnastics. I watched with curiosity at first and then signed up to start receiving his email messages. As I learned more about his training and philosophies, I wanted to find a way to participate in his program.
Sitting on the sidelines, wasn’t going to improve my fitness. The first step for me was taking time for me. So, for Mother’s Day, I took the time away from my family to attend a free bootcamp at Elver Park. The weather was cold and rainy but I brought along my sister and sister in-law to give it a try. I loved it, especially the hill sprints, I was hooked and really sore for the next few days!
Taking a class still wasn’t working with our family schedule so I was doing interval/burst training on my treadmill and using short videos from Dustin’s blog to enhance my workouts. The interval and burst training was not only burning fat, it was helping me to increase my running speed. My 5-K training run times were steadily dropping. But most importantly, it was fitting into my schedule so I could stay committed to the training plan I developed. The burst/interval training is so effective at burning fat that I didn’t need to run for 45 or 60 minutes. I could workout for 20 – 30 minutes and get great results.
Another thing I do after every workout is keep a journal of what I did, how I felt and my accomplishments. This log serves a few purposes. First, I enjoy looking back and seeing the progress I have made. Second, it serves as motivation when a workout is feeling hard to see what I did last week or last month and push to run faster or lift heavier weights. Third, it is my trainer, keeping track that I am working out and improving. If there are too many blank days, it encourages me to get back on track.
When Dustin introduced Fit Moms For Life, I signed up immediately. I needed assistance with weight training and this was a great option for my at home plan. When I received the 1st DVD I couldn’t wait to start. I am not going to tell you it was easy or pain free. I had to stay very motivated to get up and workout 5-6 mornings a week at 5:30 AM. I had to convince myself to use heavier weights and I had to push through a lot of muscle soreness. For my workouts, I alternate Fit Moms For Life DVD’s with interval/burst treadmill training.
The results, more than I could have expected. After six weeks, I started to see changes in my body. I should have taken before pictures and measurements but I didn’t and I regret it. I encourage everyone starting the program to take measurements. It may be painful at the time but you will be happy you did to see your results.
Approximately eight weeks into my training, I ran a 5K race and was the 10th woman to finish. I took an amazing five minutes off of my 5K time from last year. More important than that, I am running injury free. I always had a sore hamstring or knee or tight muscle that was slowing me down. Thanks to stronger muscles, especially my hamstrings and core, I no longer have the minor aches and injuries. The core and muscle strength also help make daily activities easier.
Another benefit to staying committed to the program is the 15 pounds of weight I have lost. My arms, back, waist and legs are so much more toned and I feel great about it. I can wear a tank top and know that I no longer have the “flying squirrel” under my arms.
If you want to run faster, lose weight and be healthier, I encourage you to take the first step and give yourself the gift of time to improve yourself. It only takes me 20 – 30 minutes five to six days a week. Not only will you improve yourself you will set an example for your kids. My three girls know my workout time is important to me and they now are more interested even at their young ages in staying fit and getting stronger. As they grow up, I look forward to working out with them. If I can find the time get in shape, you can to. What are you waiting for?
