Burn Off Holiday Calories!

5 Simple Tips to Burn MORE Calories During Your Workout:

Stop Carrying Around Your Spare Tire!

        1. Cardio/ Strength Training/ Cardio; warm up your body with 15 minutes of light cardio, exhaust a few muscle groups with strength training, and keep your heart pumping by ending with another 15 minutes of cardio. The purpose here is to create a 2 hour "after burn" where your body will continue to burn calories after you left the gym.
        2. Incorporate Your Entire Body; most people know that the more muscle mass you have the more calories you'll naturally burn. Likewise, integrating multiple muscle groups in your exercise will increase the calories your shed off. The new phenomenon of "crossfit" isn't all that new to gym rats but the idea seems to be alien to most people. Complete a MINIMUM 3 sets of 10 reps for each muscle group in your Lower Body, Upper Body, and Core.
        3.Fast Music; You will be surprised at how much harder you will push when you're listening to your favorite fast paced music. Studies have even shown that when listening to upbeat tunes your workout will actually seem EASIER. Don't believe me, try it out!
        4. Interval Cardio; start with 2 minute light jog and 1 minute sprint, until you total 15 minutes. You can actually improve your cardio and overall fitness quicker than with steady paced jogging. If you don't have a running track or trails near by, you'll have to get more familiar with the elliptical or programming the treadmill. To easy for you, try this; 2min jog and 2min sprint OR 1min jog and 2min sprint.
        5. Proper Form; not only will proper form help avoid injury, but just about every exercise you can think of should involve your core. Cardio, stand up straight with your shoulders down and back, tuck in that tummy, and keep your arms moving. Strength training, activating your core will make some exercises easier and help avoid those nasty lower back injuries. In short, ENGAGE YOUR CORE!!

Don't have a gym membership, here's an at-home WOD.

Warm-up:
15 min Interval Run; 1min sprint and 2 min jog

Main Set:
20 Push ups
20 Back Scratchers
30 Crunches
20 Lunges
50 Jumping Jacks
20 Dips
2 min holding Superman
30 Side Crunches (30 each side)
50 Body weight squats
30 Calf raises
 (Repeat 2 times)

Cool Down:
15 min Interval Run; 1min sprint and 2 min jog
20 minutes of Yoga

What did you do today? Any Questions out there?