Workout Length, Healthy Habits, Hotel Workout…

challenge workoutsQuestion: How do I fit your Challenge Burpee and Challenge Jump Rope workouts in with my own workouts? My workouts are already 60+ min.   Mike

Answer: First of all, I think your workouts are a little long to add more. Doing 60+ min is too long to add a burpee or jump rope workout on the end so don’t add a burpee or jump rope workout to what you’re already doing for an hour. My suggestion is to do a burpee or jump rope workout once or twice a week on their own. Include a warm up and cool down and it should round out to be about a 20 minute workout. Go with gusto!

On other days, I’m not sure how much rest you include in each of your 60+ workouts, but if you want to increase fitness drastically, you can lower rest time while trying to maintain workout density (as much work as before).

My theory is that if you’re going 110%, you can’t maintain that intensity for long. I suggest increasing intensity and cutting your workout time back. It may be a little much to ask you to go to 20-30 minute workouts at first, but maybe you could try 40 minutes with increased intensity. Hopefully once you learn how you can throttle your workouts to increase the intensity, you’ll save time and have a super quick efficient workout.

********************************************************

Question: I recently lost almost 30 lbs on a low carb style diet. I’m having a hard time maintaining my weight loss now that I’ve introduced carbs back into my meals. I just never seem full. I don’t want my weight to yo-yo. Any suggestions? Pamadam fyfa paula

Answer: Pam, my friend Nate had a similar situation with his client, Paula. Her performance for her workouts was declining and her low carb diet wasn’t fueling her the way she needed. On top of that she felt soft and flabby. Paula is in her 50’s. This is her after she tried Nate’s plan. You can read about the plan here. It’s very much what I do to stay lean.

 

*********************************************************
Question: Hey Shawna, I bought your challenge workouts program back in March and since then I’ve bought challenge jump rope, challenge burpee and a bunch of other programs that you recommend. I’m feeling overwhelmed, like there’s so much to do and not enough time to do it all. I really want to make a change but haven’t been able to stick to anything. Where should I start?

Answer: First of all, thanks for your support! The sad thing about the fitness industry these days is that there is so much out there that you could potentially be doing. There are bodyweight workouts, resistance training, HIIT, challenge workouts etc. And, on top of that there are thousands of different diet and lifestyle programs that are also useful.
But… The reality is that you don’t have enough time in the day to do all of these things. In fact, most people only have a little bit of time they can set aside for a good workout or to cook a healthy meal, right? So that’s why I recommend starting small and working from there. Here are 3 simple habits you can form that will move you towards your goals the fastest:
1) Start by committing that you will exercise 3 days a week for 20-30 minutes, that’s it, no more, no less. After you consistently do this for 1 month then either add a workout day or up the time you spend exercising to 30-40 minutes (tops!).
2) Make sure you eat enough protein throughout the day. Protein helps you recover from your workouts, builds lean muscle and decreases your overall appetite. 100-150g for women and 150-200g for men is good for most people.
3) Make sure you get alive to 100 good nights sleep. Sleep is the time when your hormones reset and your body repairs from the days work. When sleep is good, your workouts will be good, your recovery will be good and your hormones will be good.
Start with just those 3 things and don’t try to add anything else in until you can do those 3 things for at least 1 month. That will set you on a good path that will lead you towards your goals.
This question provoked me to email a friend of mine who is an expert in turning your bad habits into good ones to ask him for a guest post on how he approaches permanent habit transformation. Look out for that tomorrow. Until then check out his new book called The 27 Body Transformation Habits YOU Can’t Ignore.

This book/habit transformation program has sold over 1,123 copies in only 10 days WITHOUT a publisher backing it. I won’t tell you about the CRAZY discount he’s offering readers of the Challenge Workouts Blog, you’ll have to CLICK HERE To Find Out The 27 Habits Discount <— Challenge Workout Blog Readers ONLY

*********************************************************

Question: What’s the best way to get a workout in and navigate NYC all at once? (Okay, you got me again, I asked that ;))

Answer: I’m all for multi-tasking, I usually DON’T multi-task while I’m training though. In this case, since our NYC time was tight it just had to be done.  It was back to a hotel room workout (in my PJ’s) while Hannah showered up. We had a big ‘to do and see’ list, so the only way to knock things off the list was to plan, plan, plan (even while I was planking ;))

Turns out my sense of direction matches my cooking skills. Thankfully Hannah is better so we didn’t get too turned around too much. I always factor in some ‘getting lost’ time when we have to be anywhere at a certain time.

NYC plank Here was my hotel room workout:

Set the timer for 40 seconds of workout with a 5 second transition and do the following:

  • triple stop push ups
  • wall sit stick ups
  • burpees
  • front plank
  • side plank
  • side plank

Repeat three times

Grab some great travel workouts here and here

Train in your pj’s at home or in YOUR hotel room 😉