Feb

Snowy Exercise

Think the snow will slow down your exercise? You could be right–but only in the best way possible! Snowshoeing burns about 45 percent more calories than walking or running when done at the same pace and on the same type of terrain.

Don’t have snow shoes? No worries–just walking or running in your regular shoes with clips or without will produce about a 30 percent higher calorie burn. Plus the cold weather challenges your body to maintain an internal homeostasis, further burning calories.

Don’t use a snowy day as an exercise to skip your workout. Use it as a training tool and best yourself next time the street is clear

Feb

The Metabolic Workout

By Shayna Robinson, MSPT, PhD

Want to rev your metabolic rate?
Try jump squat thrusts, and add a plank knee twist between the thrusts and jumps. Do 10x and you’ll be on your way to all over weight loss and muscle tone.

Metabolic training is a way to burn cals quickly and shred muscles so you see definition. It works by increasing your metabolic rate–the rate at which your body burns cals at rest. It’s made up of 3 components in your exercise;

1) Metabolic Training Uses Large Muscle Groups

Jan

Focus: ACL Injury Prevention

An estimated 70% of ACL injuries do not involve contact, and may be from a simple misstep. How can you help avoid these injuries and stay off the sidelines?

Athletes who have suffered an ACL injury are at increased risk of developing arthritis later on in life, even if they have surgery for the injury. It

Nov

Trending: CycloCross

It’s not just the rush of full threshold, no holds barred racing that makes CycloCross the hottest trend this season. CycloCross is a sport–part racing, part mountain biking, dismounting, carrying your bike over obstacles–that proves to be tough on even the most serious athlete.

Because you push yourself to 80-90% of your max, it gives you a tough workout in minimal time. And more and more athletes are moving towards sprint workouts; that is, sprinting through multiple types of exercises to get the full body workout you need. This preps your body to do pretty much anything.

CycloCross bikes, or Cross bikes are made like a racing bike--light weight with the ability to maintain high speeds--but with an off terrain tire, made for mud, climbing and high intensity maneuvers.

Enter your own personal CoreFitCross workout plan:

Get on your bike and push yourself to your lactate threshold–the threshold where your muscles start to burn. Hold it there for 30 seconds and then push to your max for 15sec. Drop it back down to your threshold for 30sec and drop down to 30% of your max for 3 minutes. Repeat this 6 times. You can try it going up a hill–it perfectly replicates what CycloCross is all about.

Sep

Avoid Nerve Damage: Goal Line Balance

NFL trainers use sport specific exercises to strengthen stabilizers for goal line success

Ever wonder how NFL pro-athletes avoid injury? They practice sport specific training. But even those highly paid professionals have physical issues and anyone who typically practices some form of cardiovascular exercise has experienced it. One of the most prevalent issues that affect regular exercisers is the nagging numb tingly that occurs sometime in the middle of your workout. You try to shake it off and assume it’s a circulation issue, but there is another culprit at play here; nerve damage.

Nerve damage is a common sports injury that sometimes gets overlooked because it can be sporadic or only prevalent during the actual exercise and then may subside after.

Sep

Exercise Less, Lose Weight

Chatarunga dude. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles get it done.

For a long time now, I’ve been touting the benefits of the weight loss trick “slow and steady wins the race.” Most of the time, in fact, I recommend doing no more than 20-30min of physical activity daily as a way to win the weight loss game. In short bursts of exercise–20-30min–you expend just enough to offset your daily intake by on average 300 calories. The odds are that you won’t increase the calories in your diet. You won’t even notice they are missing. If you expend more calories in one session of exercise, you may notice and feel fatigued and are therefore more prone to eating more calories to compensate from feeling tired.

The NYTimes this morning has a write up about a recent study published by the University of Copenhagen.

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Sep

Holiday Prep

There are three optimum times of year to start getting fit: January–the start of the new year, April–start of the summer season, September–prep for holidays. This time of year is my favorite; the leaves are turning, the air is cool and crisp, there’s a new sense of starting fresh (think going-back-to-school) and we’re all getting prepped to see friends and family for holidays. I love to do comprehensive routines that tone and re-shape your body from all the fun eating and drinking you’ve been doing all summer long. I’m not one to fore-go a good party, so I have to get back to the core exercises my body knows and loves. Here are three great exercises to do every day to shape and tone your body in prep for the holidays. Combine it with cardio 5x per week and you body will stay stunning–even after the pumpkin pie.

Spiderman Pushup: x10 each leg

Split Lunges: x10 each leg

Lean-To Twists: x10 each direction

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Apr

Challenge #16: Standing Half Splits

Now a few of you (okay, maybe all of you) will look at the thumbnail STANDING HALF SPLITS image and say to yourself, “Shayna must be on drugs if she thinks I can do that.” While I don’t expect you to fully extend your leg to the sky (like the crazy lady in the picture), you can certainly begin with a HALF MOON POSE.

Try working with a stability ball. Place one or both hands on ball and slowly lift leg up, while bringing upper body down towards ball. When you have your weight and balance figured out, start rotating your outer hip high towards the ceiling for HALF MOON. If you are ready to move on to standing half splits and have the flexibility in your hamstrings, SLOWLY rotate your hip back down towards the floor to square your hip off. Then as you engage your hamstring on the up leg, pull your abdominal wall in and slowly bring your upper body down. This is the full STANDING HALF SPLITS.

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Apr

Challenge #15: Power Up

Alright, let’s face it, I know you guys are all a sucker for a pretty face. And while this intro picture might be a clever ruse to draw you in to checking out this POWER UP workout challenge, I’m willing to bet you either want to look like this guy, or be with this guy. To do either, you have to have a body to match. Try CoreFit Challenge #14 to power up through plyometrics, and full body core work. If you want to really push yourself, add a 50m sprint in between each exercise without resting.

Apr

Challenge #14: Donkey Kicks

Want a BUTT so tight you can bounce a quarter off it? Haha, no, you don’t have to do lunges all day long. You can do something that blasts your booty, core (for HOT ABS too, why not), arms and gets your heart rate going (CARDIO). Wake up the booty for some Monday morning action!

CoreFitChicago’s 30 Day Challenge #14 is Donkey Kicking: Do as many as you can for 1 minute. How high and fast can you kick your legs up?!?

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