McKinley Grapevine

 If you don’t belong to a gym and would like some workouts to follow or if you are looking to make your walks/runs more exciting…check out the workout apps below.  Some of these apps are really cool!!

Zombie, Run! – a game where you are cast as the character “Runner 5” trying to survive a zombie apocalypse through a series of missions which you run, collect items to help the town survive, and listen to various narrations to uncover mysteries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlRgBvYFxTo

Superhero Workout – a motion-tracking workout game that counts every rep and every calorie of every exercise you do so you don’t have to!  It includes twelve workouts and seven challenges and can be hooked up to your Apple TV or Chromecast in order to see your moves on a bigger screen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VdpjTMXdyk

Dungeon Runner: Fitness Quest – a clever app that challenges you to play a dungeon crawling game by performing a series of real-world fitness exercises.  It uses the same motion-tracking technology found in Superhero Workout to automatically track your reps and calories and translate them into dungeon crawling actions and progressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p976QSq5hxQ&feature=youtu.be

The Walk: Fitness Tracker and Game – tracks every walk and run you take and updates it on a top-down view of a map that shows you the neighborhood, park, or other area that you are virtually walking through. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXZoKPR8Jw

Nexercise – a fitness app that gives you points for every 15 minutes of exercise you do and then those points that you earn can be used as rewards at places like Barnes and Noble, Amazon, CVS, Sephora, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i118RMQw20s

Battle Suit Runner Fitness – this app is similar to Zombies, Run! except this time you’re protecting the Earth against alien invaders!

Pact – allows you to make bets with others around your fitness goals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-2OEFPiaZo

Teemo – another app similar to Zombies, Run! and Battle Suit Runner Fitness, but this allows you to choose from a variety of virtual adventures rather than having only one.

https://vimeo.com/40244582

7 Minute Workout Challenge – this app contains several seven minute workouts that are designed to help you fit exercise into your busy schedule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg41MxKEb08

Yoga Studio – this app contains over 24 hours of ready-made classes plus 280 poses and can be used by yoga newbies or veterans, the classes range from 15 to 60 minutes long.

Good Morning Everyone!

One of the most common ailments I hear people talk about is back pain or tightness that can also refer to other parts of the body.  This can be caused by several things such as sitting for an extended period of time due to driving, flying and just sitting at work or not wearing the right walking or running shoes.  There are simple stretches and exercises you can do daily to help you strengthen your whole core which includes the muscles in the front, our abdominals and the muscles in the back, our lower back.  Below are a few videos you can follow along with to help you strengthen and stretch. 

Before you check out the videos, I have a question and a challenge for you.  If you sit while you work, how long do you sit for at a time?  If your answer is more than 1hr at a time, I challenge you to set an alarm on your phone for every hour.  When the alarm goes off, stand up and go for a 1-3min walk – that’s all!  It could make a difference in the way your whole core feels :).

7min Core (lower back and abdominal) Strengthening Routine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRBmzCCMZVY

4 Stretches For Lower Back Pain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_uR01Dx9Mk

Yoga Stretches for Back Pain Relief, Sciatica, Neck Pain & Flexibility, Beginners Level Workout – 40min:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q00u-60XM9Y

I’m about to tell you how beneficial daily exercise/activity is for you (this isn’t the first and won’t be the last time either) but many of you are still struggling to fit it into your schedule.  I think much of the struggle has to do with 45-60min…if you don’t have 45-60min to carve out for activity, you’re NOT going to make the time at all.  So, let’s erase 45-60min and replace it with 20min.  If you have the desire to be active and you want to feel and look better, you CAN carve out 20min a day – NO EXCUSES, EVERYONE CAN!!!!

Twenty reasons why you should add 20 minutes of activity to your daily routine!!

One more – psychologically you feel GREAT!  You feel accomplished! You followed through with your plan and proved to yourself that you CAN add activity to your daily routine.  This is a very big deal!!!

How to spend your 20 minutes:

Workout Option One:

20 minute cardio

• Treadmill
• Arc trainer
• Bike

Workout Option Two:

6:00 – Walk, jog or run (you should be winded)

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Plank

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Hold a lunge position, left leg forward (isolated lunge)

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Plank

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Hold a lunge position, right leg forward (isolated lunge)

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Plank

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Jump lunges (or alternate your lunges in place)

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Plank

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Jump lunges (or alternate your lunges in place)

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

1:00 – Plank

 

Workout Option Three:

3:00 –  Jump Rope or run in place

0:40 – Burpees

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Side Squats

0:20 – Recover

0:30 – Bicycle Crunches

0:30 – Plank

0:40 – Body weight squats

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups with knee dives (bring right knee to right elbow after push-up – alternate knees)

0:20 – Recover

1:00 – Plank, alternating between elbow and straight arm

1:00 – Recover

-Twice Through –

 

Workout Option Four:

Choose your cardio, ARC trainer, treadmill, elliptical, bike, running in place, jump rope, jump lunges, jumping jacks…your choice.

2:00 – Cardio

0:50 – Plank

0:10 – Recover

1:00 – Cardio

0:30 – Push-ups

0:30 – Supermans (2-3 sec holds)

1:00 – Cardio

0:50 – Toe touch crunches (on your back, extend your feet up towards the ceiling and crunch up trying to bring your finger tips to your shoe laces or toes)

0:10 – Recover

1:00 – Cardio

0:30 – Push-ups

1:30 – Recover

-Twice Through –

 

Email me with any questions 🙂

Yours In Health and Wellness,

Meredith

Hi Everyone!!!

This is a very busy time for many of you which can make it very easy for your workouts to suffer.  No problem!  Below is a
workout that will only take you 15min 🙂

 

6:00 – Walk, jog or run (you should be winded)

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

1:00 – Plank

0:40 – Hold a lunge position, left leg forward (isolated
lunge)

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

1:00 – Plank

0:40 – Hold a lunge position, right leg forward (isolated
lunge)

0:20 – Recover

0:40 – Push-ups

0:20 – Recover

1:00 – Plank

1:00 – Jump lunges or alternating lunges

 

Done!!!!

 

To see correct form for these exercises, watch the video below 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f3yxFRJjBk

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith

 

Hi Everyone!

Several of you have asked for exercises you can do at home or while you’re traveling that do not require equipment.  Below are 2 body weight exercise videos! 

The first video shows correct form for 6 body weight exercises:

1.      Push-up

2.      Plank

3.      Plank to Push-up

4.      Superman

5.      Squats

6.      Lunges

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVETJmRiR34

The second video is a routine using 4 of the bodyweight exercises.

1.      10 Push-ups

2.      24 Jump lunges

3.      10 Plank to push-up

4.      12 jump squats

In the video, we complete 3 full sets.  I would recommend completing either 3-6 sets or set a timer for 20min and cycle through as many sets as you can in 20min.  Before you start your workout, warm your body up by walking or jogging in place for 5min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f3yxFRJjBk

There are lots of different routines you can create from these 6 exercises.  Create one that works for you.  If you can only do 5 push-ups and 10 lunges…GREAT…start there and challenge yourself to do 3 sets.  You will get stronger the more you try 🙂.  It really is possible to fit strength training into your day…especially when it’s a 20min workout!

Please email me if you have any questions at all about form or putting together a specific routine. 

Enjoy the rest of your day 🙂

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith

Busy, Busy, Busy…

I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend!  Now life gets busy with shopping for the perfect gifts, preparing for more family get-togethers and festive parties.  How do we fit everything in without kicking exercise off the “To Do” list.  Hopefully you choose to maintain the same routine you had before Thanksgiving, but, if there are days where you just can’t fit it all in OR you don’t currently exercise and would like to start, here’s a simple solution.

I know some of you already do this from time to time, so use this as a friendly reminder and kudos to you!  When you’re watching TV… do push-ups, planks or crunches during every commercial.  If you’re watching a movie or reading a book, do the exercises every 20min for 3min.  Here are two examples of what your routine could look like:

Just starting out? Cycle through the following:

1.      5 Push-ups

2.      00:30 plank

3.      10 crunches

Workout regularly, just couldn’t fit it in today? Cycle through the following:

1.      20 Push-ups

2.      01:00 plank

3.      20 crunches

Think about it.  If you do 5 push-ups for every commercial cycle (and there are at least 4) you’ll be up to a minimum of 20 push-ups daily!!  How cool!?  You can stay on track with your workouts and do all the fun stuff this holiday season!!  Woohoo!!

 

Have a great day 🙂