You can bridge up and down with this exercise as you see in the video or you can bridge up and hold if you are having trouble stabilizing your core.

Try to work your way up to bridging both ways for 1 minute.  Work your way up to 2-3 sets.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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This is my favorite example and most resembles how doctors and surgeons treat their patients.  You have a door in your house that at one time used to open and shut effortlessly and close all the way.  For some reason now, the door will not close completely and seems to have become bigger in the top right corner.  Now a surgeon is most likely going to treat the top right corner and shave off a piece of the door to make it smaller, so it will once again close.  Under normal circumstances a door can not grow, so how did the door become bigger in the upper right hand corner? 

To treat this door correctly you need to get to the root of the problem, don't just stick a Band-aid on it.  The structure of the door is compromised, the hinges are failing.  Treat the hinges not the door.

Our bodies are much like the door.  You go to the doctor about your knee pain – and he only checks the knee.  Your body is like a chain, everything is linked together.  9 times out of 10 that lingering knee pain is coming from somewhere else in the body, usually the hip.  Low back pain usually comes from a combination of weak glutes and tight hip flexors, not necessarily the back.

The majority of the time pain relief is possible, but you need to find someone who treats the whole body not just the right hand corner of the door.  A good place to start is the Functional Movement Screen website, they have a list of people that are specifically trained to treat the body as a whole.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Now that your feet are off the ground your hamstrings will have to work harder, but you still do not want them to cramp.  If you are having touble moving with this exercise you can bridge up and hold instead.

Give it a try, if you find this exercise too hard back yourself back down to the 4th exercise and continue there.  Try to work your way up to 1 or 2 sets of about a minute each.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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This exercise takes you back to using both glutes at the same time.  When doing the exercise hands can be placed anywhere.  Generally it is a good idea not to have them on the floor, you do not want to use them to help push off.  Keep the low back neutral and try not to let it arch.

Start out by doing 1- 2 sets of about 20 reps.  As you advance you can move up to 1 – 2 sets of 1 minute.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Do you ever wish you could have a warranty for your body?  I know I do.  As a kid I was pretty hard on my body parts.  I broke my ankle in high school; the day I got my cast off I went home and started running on it.  I wanted to be ready for practice the next day.  Of course I pay for that little mistake now.

There are days I wish I had a warranty, I have quite a few body parts I would like to return for repair or replace all together, unfortunately it doesn't work that way.  Instead I make do with what I have and I take very good care of what I have left.

Eating correctly, taking the right supplements, getting enough rest, laughing and adequate exercise can be just what the doctor ordered if you are in need of some repair.

Total Body Transformation workout - day 24 anaerobic workout after a 5 minute warm up do 5-6 rounds of 1 minute
hard followed by a 1 minute recovery, be sure to finish with a 5 minute
cool down.  Foam roll the shoulders, glutes and TFL.

Day 25 strength workout a 3×12 plus stretch the rotator cuff and lats

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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A heart rate monitor can be a great tool for keeping you motivated and on track with your fitness goals.  First of all, gadgets are great they give you something to look at and enable you to keep going even when you begin to get a little bored.  Secondly, a heart rate monitor will help you stay within in your target zone and ultimately help you reach your goals sooner.

I often find it difficult to help my new clients, who have never exercised, understand how hard they need to be working.  They are either working so hard out of their target zone that they can't keep up the pace for very long or they are not working near hard enough.

Most people who exercise will use one of two things to help monitor how hard they are working out.  First, the above mentioned heart rate monitor and secondly a rate of perceived exertion scale (RPE).  RPE is a scale of 1 to 10, 1indicates not working very hard and a 10 is an all out hardest effort you can give.  The scale is easy to use and very affordable (free), however, it has its' drawbacks.  First, a lot of people do not know their all out effort.  Secondly, as you become more fatigued it becomes easier to relate working at a 7-8 to working at a 10.

The heart rate monitor is a little more specific, you are either working hard and getting your heart rate up or you are not.  Click on the watch above if you would like to by one, you will be taken to the Perform Better website. 

As you workout try to use something to gage how hard you are working and watch your success grow.

Total Body Transformation Workout – Day 20 strength workout A 3×12, flexibility, stretch the piriformis, quads and chest.

Day 21- Aerobic workout 15 minutes your choice of activities and foam roll the lats, hamstrings and glutes.

Day 22 – Enjoy your day off.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Take a step back over the next few days and turn off your technology (lights and refrigerator optional).  I bet you become much more productive at work when you stop checking your email and rss feeds every 5 minutes.  At night do not turn on the television or video games, instead get out some of those old fashioned board games or maybe even exercise as a family. 

Don't let technology get in the way of your good health.

Total Body Transformation Workout – Day 16 Strength B 3×12 and stretch the calves, quads and lats.

Day 17 – anaerobic workout after a 5 minute warm up do 5-6 rounds of 1 minute hard followed by a 1 minute recovery, be sure to finish with a 5 minute cool down.  Foam roll the shoulders, glutes and TFL.

Day 18 -strength C 3×12 and stretch the chest, lats and quads.

Day 19 aerobic workout 15 minutes followed by foam rolling the hamstrings, snow angel and lats. 

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Generally I do not send you out to other websites.  You have so little time in the day to begin with that I'm lucky you even have time to read my blog much less go to a bunch of the other places I could send you. 

However today I am going to break that general rule of thumb.  I found a website that will give you a new fitness tip everyday for the entire month of January, pretty cool huh?  I think everyone needs a little bit of extra motivation once in a while.  Bookmark it and visit as often as necessary throughout the month.

Total Body Transformation Workout – I am going to be pretty busy over the next couple of days so I am going to give you days 4, 5 and 6 just in case I do not get the blog posts written.

Day 4 you will stretch the calves, chest and piriformis

Day 5 you will do 2×15 strength B workout and then foam roll the glutes, TFL and hamstrings

• Pushup
• Alternating lunge
• Dumbbell shoulder press
• Dumbbell row
• Stability ball leg curl

Day 6 you will do an aerobic activity of your choice for 14 minutes and then do the shoulder sleeper stretch, spiderman stretch and the psoas stretch

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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