Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your personal trainer in Amarillo. What do you do when you fall off the wagon of healthy eating or working out? Today we are going to be discussing a few tips for how to get back on the horse as well as sharing a great exercise for your core to burn off that muffin top or saddle bag area along your hips ( you know, the extra fluff that no one wants, but magically appears). If you have any questions about this or would like further information from our team, give us a call: 806-322-3188.
Let’s talk derailment. This is a common obstacle that people face when they begin to become healthier. Have you noticed right around the weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) it is really easy to get desuaded from your good choices? We lose our structure. People have a good-bad relationship with this type of framework. Structure gives us an idea of what is coming next; good! Structure keeps us on the path of progression; great! Structure keeps us accountable for what we are doing…ummmm, yuck.
Our aversion to structure stems from being bored by it. Easy as that. We want to have the freedom to do whatever we want and not be leashed to a schedule 24/7. Once that freedom is granted, for example at the end of a work week, all the sudden you have tons time and everything just kind of falls apart. You lose track of how much water you have had; you lose track of how many meals you have eaten or how much food you have consumed; who knows about the work out maybe they get in or maybe not. Maybe we miss our optimal workout time say you are normally a morning person, but you slept in. People think “I missed it today, so I’ll get back at it tomorrow.” That leads to one day skipped after another, after another. Just keeping you further from your goals.
How do we recover from derailment though and not let it keep us from what we want? The best bet is to plan ahead. Know the days that you typically fall off the wagon and make a plan to combat them. Maybe Fridays you are stuck in meetings most of the day and you don’t get your proper meals/snacks in, then when you get home you start scarfing down everything in sight. Those are great days to have crock-pot meals prepped or a meal thawing from your freezer that you can just heat up in the oven. On the weekends maybe you don’t workout the way you should, make a plan to have a backup workout; something short and sweet. You could do this outside or have a bike ride. Then Monday morning rolls around you won’t be too far off track.
Acknowledging you will eventually (briefly) fall off the wagon is the first step. From there you have to make a plan to battle the urge to let everything go. Hopefully your plan isn’t just “skip it”, but find a suitable alternative. Applying a plan to keep you on track will yield a higher chance of success in the coming week. Rather than taking one step forward and three steps back, a plan allows us to keep one foot in front of the other while still on the path to a healthier self.
We don’t have to be perfect 100% of the time. As a personal trainer in Amarillo, I expect most of my clients will get derailed at some point. So I offer them a clean slate. When they come in, it is a new day and the guilt from whatever happened the day before has to be discarded. The only thing we can change is the day ahead of us, so as a team we aim to make today a little bit better than the one before it. If you know Saturday and Sunday are your rough days to follow the plan, write it in your calendar on Monday to call up your friends, family, or a team of trainers to call you and keep you on track for those days.
Americans have a all or nothing approach: we either succeed or we fail. If you continue to try, putting your best foot forward, you cannot fail. Maybe you don’t really stick to your nutrition plan on Saturday and Sunday you ate a few carrots, if by Monday you can return to your schedule then you can definitely catch up. Plan for the weekend; what action plan are you going to establish to keep from losing track of your goal? – that’s the pearl of wisdom I have for you today. Just remember everyone deserves a clean slate everyday. You deserve the chance to be just a little better everyday, but not to dwell on what was lacking.
Now for the core workout. This is a core tri-set, meaning we have 3 separate exercises you are going to do one right after the other for 30 seconds a piece then repeat on the other side. You can perform a tri-set once, twice, three or four times, that is up to you. For isolating the core, I wouldn’t suggest more than 3-4 times per side however. Today we are focusing on the obliques (aka muffin tops). They begin at the hips and lay across your abdomen, crossing over each other in an X shape. They look almost like you put two seat belts of muscle on crossing each other.
To create a firm waistline we are going to add 3 exercises in a row. If you are a beginner feel free to take breaks, but try to keep them very short. If you can do this without breaks, I highly suggest it. Side note**Core exercise do not burn your fat. Doing crunches or ab work will not burn your fat. This exercise will help tone the muscle underneath the fat which in turn raises your metabolism and can aid in fat loss. You have to raise your metabolism and heart rate to get that fat melting off**
To start off we are going to get on the floor in a side forearm plank. Make sure your elbow is directly underneath your shoulder to keep the stress on the shoulder minimized. Also make sure your torso isn’t sinking into that elbow (or ear to shoulder — they aren’t friends) in order to avoid causing long term damage. Pull your chest up and away from your shoulder. To modify bend your knees backwards, but keeping a long straight line from your shoulders to your knees. To intensify, put your legs into a scissor position (top leg is in front resting the edge of the foot on the floor and the back leg behind). In either the modified or intensified position, elevate your hips into the side plank and hold. Engage your stomach by holding ribs to hips. To modify further you can place your other hand on the ground, but don’t put any pressure on it; we keep it there for balance, but not support. Hold for 30 seconds.
Next, while maintaining the plank, take your upper arm and place your fingertips behind your ears. Bring your elbow down to the bottom hand’s fingertips. Turn and twist, and return back up. Do as many of those as you can for 30 seconds.
Then, still holding the plank and fingertips to ears, lift your top leg and drop the hips down and up. If you were on your knee in the modified position, you can still perform all of these exercises in the tri-set.
Three great options performed back to back for 30 seconds a piece with as few breaks as possible in between. See how many sets you can get and remember to switch sides! I’d love to hear what you think and how many sets you did. I will see you tomorrow.
If you’d like to talk with our team about setting up a guided plan that is customized to your goals and your nutrition needs, lifestyle modifications, and more. We do the comprehensive approach and will get you where you want to be. Give us a call 806-322-3188 or e-mail us at info@customfitness.biz. At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainer in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day everybody!