Workout Wednesday - TRX Curl Ups

The final exercise of my top 10 TRX moves is the TRX curl up.  This is similar to a C-sit up in pilates but your feet are in the straps.  By keeping your legs straight and elevated, you challenge yourself because you aren't able to rely on your hip flexors to help you sit up.

The principle behind this move is to focus on using your abdominal muscles to lift you up off of your mat by focusing on one vertebrae lifting at a time.  While the lift is challenging additional work - and benefits can be achieved on the return to the mat if you focus on control your momentum and the speed you move.

So here are the steps to a TRX Curl up:

1. Begin with your straps set to mid-calf length.
2. Lying face up on your mat place your heels in the straps.  Legs should be fully extended with a natural bend at the knee.
3. Engage your abdominal muscles and begin curling yourself up off of the mat slowly -one vertebrae at a time until you are in a full sitting position.
4. Return to the mat in using the same rate of speed and thinking slow and controlled movements.
5. If this movement is difficult to complete in a smooth fluid movement or you find yourself 'stuck' at a certain point (typically just below the level of the shoulder blades) a yoga strap or band can be placed around your feet and held in your hands to provide assistance with this move.  Additionally you can removed your feet from the TRX straps and work to increase your abdominal strength with your feet on the floor.
6. To make this move more challenging extend your arms over your head while lying on the mat and focus on lifting up with the arms rotating through the should and extending your arms in front of you in the sitting position.

Making Changes Stick

We are a week and a half into the new year, January is here with a resounding chill and flying snow.  Decorations are down and packed away for another season and we are back into the swing of regular schedules.  The resolutions loudly proclaimed at the start of the month may be teetering on the edge of being lost in the land of good intentions.  

Everyone - myself included has committed to making a change or giving something up only to cave temptation feeling as though we have turn our backs on our goals.  Statistics tell us giving up resolutions are bound to happen.  New habits take 21 days to establish.  During those 21 days, old patterns and feelings surface that create desires for established behaviours to creep back into our decision making process.  Once we break our resolution and return to the patterns we were looking to break, it is difficult to get back on that train.  But it doesn't have to be.

How do we make a change in our lives whether its healthier eating, working out, or dropping an old habit take effect?   We need to build some room into our plan for change and our approach to developing new habits.  After all with a new resolution or goal regardless of what we have chosen to change, we need to establish new neuropathways.  This process can be successful with a bit of time, effort and a bit of pre-planning.

Last week I laid out seven different New Year's resolutions I wanted for myself over the next year.  I don't really view these as resolutions but more as intentions or goals for myself.  There are many things I want to achieve over the next year and I can think to myself that I would like to stay in shape, or travel somewhere new but it helps if I make a plan or write it out.  

The act of writing out my goals makes things more permanent.  It also moves my desire for change beyond something I'm thinking of and turns it into a physical act.  Sharing my written goals with others creates more permanence by holding me accountable to someone.

Those are two steps to creating strength behind your goal or intention but when your tempted to skip a workout or eat an entire bag of chips what happens to your public proclamation of healthy eating or work outs?  

• First make your goals attainable.  As a personal trainer, part of my training included goal setting with clients following the SMART theory.

        S - specific
        M - measurable
        A - attainable
        R - realistic
        T - time sensitive

It is easy to proclaim that I am going to go to the gym 5 days a week and eat only salads for lunch.  Is that realistic?  Not at all.  Perhaps for 2 - 3 weeks I could achieve this level of commitment but if I come down with the flu, work gets really busy, my kids are sick or my friends want go for lunch - I need to relax my goals a bit.  

• This line of thinking leads to the second step - flexibility.  The biggest downfall for people is the all in or all out approach.  When we slip with our resolutions, that isn't the end of the resolution.  Tomorrow is another chance to start again. If you miss one, two even three workouts, you can still get back to your routine.  Life happens - find a way to fit your new habits into yours.  If a workout at the gym isn't attainable you can still do something physical.  A series of yoga poses or even 10 squats, 10 push ups and a 30 second to 1 minute plank.  Commit to taking one little step.

• And here is the third concept behind making changes stick.  Breaking your goals down.  One of my goals this year is to do a chin up.  Right now, my chest and arms won't lift me half a inch.  So for now I'm working on developing upper body strength.  I'm starting with lat pull downs, pushups and working core strength to provide the foundation for a chin up.  I'm sure if you pick one of your resolutions, you can break the steps down into something smaller and work each day to building toward your end goal.

• The final step - realize that any particular resolution isn't the end.  There will always be something more to achieve and do.  As humans, we haven't stopped evolving - that is when we become extinct.  We picked our resolutions to improve ourselves.  The start of a new year is a nice time to make changes, but we can decide to improve ourselves at any continually.

Know that the desire to make a change in your life is the first and most important step - enjoy the journey!

Fun Food Friday - Chicken & Veg Stuffed Squash

Friday of the first week of new year!  How are the resolutions going?  A number of people in my classes this week talked about indulging and working out less over the break and I don't think that is a bad thing.  I feel that taking a break around Christmas and the New Year as well as in the summer gives us a chance to reset.  Life is busy enough so sneaking in a few treats and taking some time off from exercise isn't necessarily negative unless we make that behaviour a habit. 

This week I've had a huge focus on lean protein and veggies in my food choices and this stuffed squash was perfect for providing a meal that was filling and nutrient dense.  The great thing about this recipe is that you can adjust the fillings to suit your own tastes.  The chicken can be substituted for chick peas or any other legume as well as the veggies.

The combination of complex carbohydrates along with the protein in this meal are digested slowly allowing you to feel full longer.  This entire meal is a nutrient powerhouse.  You are getting vitamin C from the pepper, beta carotene from the carrots, omega 3's and zinc from the pumpkin seeds.  Not to mention lean protein from the chicken and fibre from the squash and a ton of antioxidants.

So here's to reestablishing healthy habits!

Chicken & Veg Stuffed Acorn Squash

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hours

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Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 acorn squash cut in half, seeds removed
• 1chicken breast
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1 red pepper seeded and chopped
• 1cup green beans
• 1 carrot peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup water or chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons raw pumpkin seeds
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place 1 teaspoon butter in each half of squash, season with salt and pepper. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until cooked through.

While squash is baking, cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Melt remaining butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Sauté chicken with garlic, onions and mushrooms until chicken is no longer pink and onions are transparent. Add pepper cooking for 2-3 minutes longer. Add beans and carrots along with water or stock. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook until the liquid has evaporated and vegetables are tender. Stir in spices and Worcestershire sauce and remove from heat.

Once squash has been cooked, remove from oven and place cut side up on plates. Fill with chicken and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and season to taste.

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Workout Wednesday - TRX Bridge

Back to the TRX workouts.  Here is number 9 of my favourite TRX moves - the TRX bridge. This exercise isolates the hamstrings, glutes and core just like when you bridge from the ground.  But in the trx straps, you get an added challenge with your feet in the straps because you are creating instability with the move and challenge those deep abdominal muscles to help you stabilize as you work through your range of motion.

For those of you with sensitive knees or really tight hamstrings, you may find this exercise difficult.  If that is the case, do your bridge on the floor, bosu or exercise ball.

Steps to completing a TRX bridge.

1. Adjust your straps to mid calf length.
2. Lie facing up, heels in the straps.
3. Move close enough to your anchor point so the knees are bent approximately 90 degrees.
4. Engage the core and press your upper back and upper arms into the mat.
5. Pressing your heels into the straps lift your hips up feeling the hamstrings and the glutes lift through this movement.  Try to create a straight line from the shoulders to the knees.
6. Lower yourself slowly to the mat.  Try to visualize using your abdominal muscles to control the move down to the mat.
7. To tie your breathing into the exercise, inhale as you come up off the mat and exhale as you lower.
8. Complete 8-12 reps doing 1-3 sets.

2016 - Here I Come!

After a bit of a teaching and blogging break, I'm ready to get back at my normal routine.  I love the Christmas holidays and New Year's celebrations.  They are the perfect time to reflex, relax and reconnect.  The really important 3-R's!

I have done a great deal of relaxing - with no teaching schedule it was pretty easy to slip into sleeping in and staying up later than normal.  I still stuck with my work outs but I changed up my routine.  I reconnected with my family and friends over the break and I reflected on the past year.

This brings me to the fourth R - Resolutions.  

There are so many mixed opinions around New Year's resolutions.  Many people feel that you are setting yourself up for failure and should introduce changes slowly.  Others ignore the nay-sayers and resolve to give up sugar, alcohol and exercise daily focusing on creating a better version of themselves.

I love New Year's resolutions. I think following a time of overindulgence that we have a tendency to want to eat healthier and exercise more.  Our bodies are craving less fatty, sugary foods and the need to move after excess.  But beyond that, setting a new intention for the year is a time to reset yourself and think about the things you want to invite in and create in your life.

To me, my New Year's resolutions are less about establishing strict, all or nothing boundaries and more about refocussing and about what I want to accomplish during the next year.  This time of reflection is about deciding my goals and giving myself a schedule.  In the past I have used specific goal setting worksheets that break each of my resolutions down to monthly milestones and it has been effective to achieving some of the changes I want for myself.  

I have modified those worksheets to suit my needs and I still use them to help stay on track.  But I also set bigger intentions for the year.  I have set aside some very specific career, health and personal based goals that I will check in on.  But I also know that things in life have a way of popping up and sometimes the intentions I set in January aren't feasible in June.  That's ok.  I don't have a crystal ball and can't see what is up ahead.

What I can do is invite positivity into my life and dream big.  I will try to do something everyday to make my goals happen, but if a glitch happens or my plans don't follow through, I know that its not the end of the world.  My resolutions are created to give my something to aim for.

In the past years from my resolutions, I have made a commitment to try one new thing a month, mediate and journal daily and all of these habits have stuck.  Some other resolutions haven't come to fruition and that's fine with me.

So for 2016 some of the things I would like to have in my life are.....

1. To be published externally by someone other than my blog.
2. To travel somewhere brand new.
3. To do a chin up - or 5.
4. To exercise daily. (I pretty much do this now)
5. To go on a backpacking trip.
6. To have a really good laugh everyday.
7. To continue my already established heathy habits.

Beyond those intentions, I just want to create space for what I already do in my life.  To be grateful for all that I have and to live each day to the fullest.  Happy New Year!

2015 Wrap Up

One of my favourite things between Christmas and New Year's is the quiet that happens (sometimes) and the chance to reflect on the past year before looking ahead.  2015 was a year of teaching and growth for me.  There were as expected in life some low points but more importantly, many more highs.

Here are a few....

New Year's Resolutions.... we'll see how the year I planned out went...The official start to my business...

Winter camping in Killarney... not sure if I'll do this again...  The hiking was great..... camping conditions.... not so much.

Montreal - This is the only picture I could find from my trip... but it was a lot of fun.

 Camping at Point Pelee 

My amazing niece!! 

My attempts at painting

Stand up paddle boarding + yoga!

Last but not least my trip outside of Vegas.

There were plenty of other accomplishments.... my writing course, jumping off a bridge, numerous trips to the beach all mixed in with a lot of hard work.

2015 has been full of surprises and wonderful times.  This has probably been my biggest year for personal growth and I really am excited for what is coming up next in my life.  The greatest lesson I've learned this year is to lessen the expectations I have for myself and just be open to opportunities and experiences around me.  And perhaps most importantly to just......

Workout Wednesday - TRX Tricep Presses

Number Eight of my favourite TRX exercises in the TRX tricep press.  Triceps are my favourite muscle group - regardless of whether you are male or female, toned triceps give your arm definition and shape not to mention strength.  

When doing this exercise, sometimes it is difficult to truly isolate the tricep and not 'cheat' in the move by using the shoulders has you work through the tricep extension.  The tendency to have the shoulders help out is often due to a lack of upper body strength.  So to avoid extra work being done by the shoulders, I find it is easier if you double up the straps and hold the top part of the triangle while working through the press.

Here are the steps to completing a perfect TRX tricep extension:

1. Adjust your straps to the mid-way point.
2. Turn facing away from the anchor point and walk out so the straps have tension.  Remember, the closer your feet are to the anchor point, the more weight you will be lifting.
3. Stand on the balls of your feet.
4. Engage the core and upper back.
5. Begin with straight arms, with a natural bend in the elbows.
6. Bend the arms at the elbows bringing the hands toward the head.
7. Press the arms straight, focusing on the triceps controlling the move.
8. To get the most out of this exercise, set the shoulders.  The only flexion in the body that should happen is in the elbows and the toes as you complete this movement.
9. To use your breath, inhale as you bring the hands toward your head and exhale as you extend the arms.
10. Complete 8-12 reps doing 1-3 set.