Challenge Workouts

Question: I’m tired of the same old bodyweight exercises, is there anything new out there? Bonnie

Answer: I called on my friend, Kate Vidulich for some ideas and she came up with three exercises you’re NOT doing that you need to try:

• sprinting walk out
• one legged RDL (Romanian deadlift) with T squeeze to curtsy lunge
• T rotation burpee

Kate is full of cool combinations of exercises that she’s put together for you in her Fat Loss Accelerator 2.o program.

Here are a few other cool hybrid exercises from Kate:

Walk Out Curtsy Lunge

• stand on one leg, bend the knee just slightly
• walk ahead out along on the floor till you get into a plank position
• keep your opposite leg up off the ground
• return to standing hinging from the hip
• bring the knee forward
• hands on to the hip
• drop into a curtsy squat and return to standing
• return to the walk out on the other leg

*Keep the leg off the ground the whole time, focusing on hinging from the hip and then going into the curtsy squat. If you need to put down your foot in the middle that’s totally fine, but the idea is to keep that leg off for the entire set to really focus on the hamstrings/glutes.

Push up Spider Crawl

• do a regular push up
• bring the foot up towards the same hand, as close as possible
• repeat on the other side
• right/left is one rep
• keep the hips low and abs braced

Find MORE super cool HYBRID exercises from Kate’s all new Fat Loss Accelerators 2.0 HERE.

Here’s a fantastic DB workout you can do. I LOVE these sorts of workouts as they have a similar feel to my Challenge Complexes.

DB Accelerator 7: Up and Down

Equipment: Dumbbells

Perform each of the following in order, with no rest between exercises and without putting the weight down. At the end of the circuit, rest for 60 seconds and repeat for a total of 5 rounds.

A) DB Squat Thrust to Deadlift x 6
B) DBPushupsx6
C) DB Cross Body Mountain Climbers x 6 D) DB Squats x 6
E) DB Lateral Lunges x 6

Phew! Tell me you’re not a hot mess after that one!

A long time client of mine does Kate’s workouts and instead of calling them ‘fat loss accelerators’ she calls them ‘fat loss a$$ kickers’. I’d have to agree. I did the follow along videos with her and trust me, they were tough!

It was the third day of filming and we were pretty beat up because the weekend we filmed Kate’s Fat Loss Accelerators, we also filmed 10 Challenge Burpee follow along videos too. Typically, one of us coaches and one of us demonstrates the exercises in each video. For this one particular video, I thought I was doing the coaching and Kate thought she was doing the coaching. I nearly fell over when I realized that she was setting up the video for me to demonstrate yet another her Fat Loss A$$ Kicker workouts. My fat was really crying that weekend, in fact, I parted ways with a lot of fat cells that day 😉

Kate packs her programs with value. Well worth checking out…click here.

 You can be up to 11 pounds lighter in just 28 days… with a proven step-by-step plan. Plus, you’ll get the blueprint to keep it off with short and intense metabolic hybrids…

Not only will you discover how to work out with just a single pair of dumbbells and your bodyweight, but you’ll also get…

Bonus # 1: The 14 Day Fat Burning Super Hormone workouts

Cutting edge metabolic workouts designed to help you burn up to 9 pounds of fat in 14 days, plus sneaky tricks to maximize your performance and see faster results

Bonus # 2: The 14 Day Rapid Fat Loss Accelerator Meal Plans

A daily plan showing you EXACTLY what you need to eat at the right time to accelerate your results.

Expires Today => 74% OFF Fat Loss Accelerator Video Complexes

The bonuses alone are worth your investment and are only available during this launch special.

Get abs before Spring!

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Sam gets his legs (and the LBD) from his Mama 😉

I’m sure I’ll need to get Sam some therapy for this…

I had a charity boot camp today where funds raised go towards a team from our church going to Mexico to build houses. Both my daughter, Hannah and son, Sam were involved. We had some corporate sponsors that donated to any one that participated. The theme of the workout was the ‘Little Black Dress’ workout (to get fit to wear a lil black dress of course), so naturally participants were encouraged to workout in a LBD.

Sam was a good sport ====>

If you’d like to donate to this worthy cause, you can do so here:

https://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=32435

My daughter made an ebook to any one that donates. Just make a donation and send her the receipt at ruckuspub1@gmail.com and she’ll send you the download link for 10 workouts and some damaging info about yours truly. Growing up with a fitness mom isn’t all fun and burpees apparently 🙂

 

 

Question: In trying to do the wall stick up, I am unable to get my arms/hands to touch the wall, let alone press against it.  Is this just plain old lack of flexibility?  Keep trying?  Is there something else to do to convince those arms and hands to lay flat against the wall? Gary

Answer: The stick up is super tough if you’re tight through the chest.

If you have a ball or bench, lay on your back, open up your arms and let your hands sort of flop to the side.

This is a great passive stretch and a good start.

After you have some flexibility, keep working on the stick up as it opens the chest and strengthens the upper back too. Hope that helps! Keep at it!

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Question: I’ve been doing your dumb bell complex challenges! Going great so far. Is this enough to burn fat, build some muscle and lean out? Also, have you ever shared your eating plan on your blog or not? I’d love to have some insight into your eating habits. “Day in the life of Shawna’s refrigerator”. Shane

Answer: I”m glad you’re enjoying the challenge complex plan. I have Challenge Diet coming up in March so you’ll get a really good idea as to what a day in my life is like. For now, you can check out this post: My Typical Monday

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Comment: Greetings to you. I completed your program Challenge Jump Rope. It was so enjoyable and fun! I have more endurance than before I picked up the jump rope. No wonder that boxers use the rope as one of their training tools. Effective!

You really know how to put together a quality training program. I saw improvement  and progression with every workout. I am now 49 years young and simply love to move. Jumping rope is becoming somewhat of an addiction.

By the way, in November I restarted ice skating. I basically learned how to ice skate two years ago. Last year, I had to sit it out due to foot surgery. Now, I am taking lessons from a figure skater. Jumping rope is giving me a huge edge because I last longer and tire less on the ice. Shawna, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you for your great example and for your excellent work. Bear hug, Anneli

My Reply: Anneli, THANK YOU so much for your kind words regarding my jump rope program.

Keep going strong on your fitness pursuits, let me know what I can do to help you and thank you again. You really did make my day!

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Question: I had a heart attack and have since recovered. I’ve changed my lifestyle and have dropped about 30 kg. I’m looking to lose another 10kg. I’ve incorporated exercise and want to do more of what you preach, however, my cardiologist said I need to do 250 minutes of exercise per week which is about 35 minutes a day. He told me to make sure my heart rate is at between 100-120 beats per min for a continuous 20 min. Isn’t this boring cardio which a lot of you fitness gurus call a waste of time? I know I have a heart condition but I need to lose weight. What do you think?

Answer:  You’re exactly right about steady state cardio being the most ineffective method for fat loss.

For any other client I’d suggest that maintaining a working heart rate of 120 is unlikely to get them to their fat loss goals quickly.

However (and this is big), I’m in NO position to argue with your cardiologist who has years of education and he or she has personal experience with YOU and your health history.

I’d highly recommend presenting your doctor with the same information about steady state cardio and asking him or her when you can safely increase the intensity of your ‘cardio’ workouts.

You could tell about this study:

In that study, subjects doing bodyweight exercises for just 4 minutes got better fitness results than subjects doing 30 minutes of slow cardio.

Reference:
“Extremely low volume, whole-body aerobic-resistance training improves aerobic fitness and muscular endurance in females.” Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2012 Dec;37(6):1124-31.

In addition, I’d work on tackling your body fat from two other angles:

I’d work on increasing lean body mass (muscle) which will help burn fat by creating a more favorable resting metabolic rate. With more muscle, you’ll burn more calories even at rest. This can be done without taxing the cardiovascular system extensively, but check with your doctor first if you’re not doing this currently.

Along with resistance training, ensure your nutrition plan is dialed in. Challenge diet is on the way to help, but in the mean time, cut back on all processed food, sugar and liquid calories. Increase vegetables and lean proteins.

I’m really happy to hear how you’ve changed your lifestyle to improve your health. I’m really impressed with your quest for knowledge. This will serve you well as you fine tune your fitness efforts.

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Question: What can I do to help my knee pain?

Answer: Take a look at this interview with my friend, Rick Kaselj as he summarizes ways to take off the stress of knees:

• seek medical advice to confirm that there’s nothing serious
• get full range of motion (straight to bent)
• focus on hip exercises to improve strength and power to des-tress knees
• stretch muscles around the knee
• change positions that irritate the knee
• take the knee out of positions of stress like some standing positions, high heeled shoes, etc

Rick’s got lots more answers that have helped me and lots of my clients with knee pain with his Fix My Knee Pain program that you can implement at home.

Rick’s program is half price today, well worth it to save money and trips to time consuming appointments when there’s so much you can do to fix your knee pain at home.

Question: I have been dieting and exercising for my wedding in July and I feel great.  I have lost 7lbs but my measurements show that my upper body has lost inches (especially my breasts) but my legs have got bigger!! I already have a narrow face and I’m worried that my face and upper body will look gaunt by the time I have my problem areas (thighs and bum) looking how I want them to! Do you have any advice on what I can do? Many many thanks in advance.

Answer:  Sadly the body will strip fat where it wants to 🙁

My suggestion is to continue with healthy eating and training (Challenge Diet is coming out soon to help)

Along with your regular workouts, I’d also a few more sets for shoulders, (DB lateral raises, presses) and back (rows, pull ups or variations of them). This will hopefully balance out the upper and lower body.

Breast tissue is mostly fat, so I’m sorry to say that your chest may shrink before your behind does. To be honest, since I’m pretty lean, I’m pretty shy in the breast department, but I have a six pack 😉 It’s not usually possible to have both unless you have some surgical help.

Make sure your diet is dialed in, in my experience, women I’ve coached that gain in the lower half have either taken measurements incorrectly (at different spots) or they may not have their diet correct.

Work on strengthening and shaping exercises for the legs like squats and lunges. This will tighten and tone your lower body. Many women think that they’ll gain weight in the lower body with squatting, but if the diet is dialed in, you should be losing some flub and shaping your rear and not gaining. Your body may hang onto a little more body fat in the thighs. This is a genetic predisposition and there’s not much you can do but to accept a J-Lo bootie and work with what Mother Nature gave you. Make your bootie and legs as tight and toned as you can.

I wish I had a magic pill to hand you. I know you’ll look beautiful on your wedding day. A fit woman is a beautiful one, must make sure you’re not starving yourself, a healthy nutrition plan over the long haul is really your long term answer.

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Comment:  I think people, families, kids, mothers, fathers, etc. don’t appreciate how long it takes to learn how to eat the right stuff and in what amount.  This is not common sense and NO ONE is teaching people this information.  It takes time to find the right plan, what meals are supposed to consist of, shop for this stuff, have the easy recipe to make the stuff, have the right snacks at night, etc.   But you can blow a good exercise regimen with an undisciplined and unstructured eating habit.

My Reply: You are so right about nutrition and the lack of knowledge out there. I don’t want to say lack of info because there’s so much out there that I think sometimes people get overwhelmed.

That’s why I decided to do Challenge Diet. So many people asked me about what I eat and how I get my coaching clients to eat. Sadly what would seem common sense isn’t always as common. People sometimes know what to eat but don’t consistently follow good sense and sometimes look for a ‘fad’ to strip away fat. That just doesn’t work. Stay tuned for Challenge Diet coming your way in March.

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Question: I am 76 and bored to tears with eliptical trainers. Stopped playing Raquetball at age 60..

Do you offer a entry level that’s suitable for someone my age?

Answer: Looks like you’re looking for an entry level program that will put a stop to mind numbing elliptical training. I highly recommend Functional Fitness. These are follow along videos that are way more interesting and fun than steady state cardio,

You’ll advance your fitness level with these progressive workouts. From there you can move onto Challenge style workouts after going up to level 4 in this program.

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Question: Hi, just started the pull up challenge program and am wondering what you mean by “assisted pull-ups”?

Answer: When I refer to ‘assisted pull ups’ I want you to do ANY type of assisted pull up you’d like.

That means a band pull up,  jumping pull up or any kind of pull up is fine. Here’s how to do a band pull up:

If you don’t have a pull up bar, it’s okay too. I give all kinds of alternatives to pull ups and ‘assisted pull ups’ to those that don’t even have a pull up bar in this video:

You can increase your pull up power with my Challenge Pull Up plan here.

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Finally, I’ll be headed to a big Super Bowl party in Tampa this weekend. I feel pretty lucky to be invited to superstar Joel Marion’s mansion and will cheer on the Seahawks with him and 140 of his closest friends. Honestly, I don’t know who Joel is cheering on, but it’ll be good fun no matter what.

Last year I met some fantastic people. In this picture is Dr. Charles Livingston (Fat Loss Factor) and Dan Long (Suspension Revolution). I’m looking forward to seeing friends Craig Ballantyne, Vince Delmonte, Adam Steer, Shaun Hadsall, Tyler Bramlet, and oh so many more (notice all the dudes) Yes, I’m one of the few girls in the crowd. Good thing I know a little about football.

There was MORE food than I’ve EVER seen before at this party. Lots of healthy choices (and some not so healthy ones too).

If you’re looking for party snacks to make at YOUR Superbowl party, you need to take a look at my friend, Dani Woodrum’s Superbowl bonus.

You’ll find a fantastic guilt free onion ring recipe here.

  You’ll find 120 fantastic recipes PLUS 15 yummy recipes that you won’t regret having indulged in after the big game.

By the time the fat lady sings, these snacks will ensure that you’re not on the couch asleep with the top button on your pants unbuttoned 😉

Get 120 fat loss comfort food recipes <= Plus 15 Super Bowl Recipes

Question: How do I start with Challenge Complexes? I’m pretty unfit, but the program looks different and like it’s a lot of fun. I hate cardio and I need a change. Debbie

Answer: Debbie, I’m glad you’re taking on Challenge complexes.

Slow and steady wins. Start off at a slow pace and as you gain strength and confidence in your body’s abilities, you can increase the weight on movements.

I hope that helps.

If Challenge Complexes is too much, start off with Functional Fitness and move on from there. There’s NO point in biting off more than you can chew and getting injured.

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*I got a few emails asking for clarification regarding the Functional Fitness program, one of which was:

Question: How are these different from your Challenge Workouts?  

Answer (from Dr Dan Ritchie): These workouts are not as intense, and they do not contain any ballistic movements like jumping or burpees.   This doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of effort involved, or that they’re easy.   They’re designed with a 50-70 yr old client in mind.  They are designed to help people move better. Side note from me: While doing the videos, I found level 3 and 4 workouts challenging, but not killing me. You can do a level 2 Functional Fitness workout in this post.

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Question: I’ve heard the term ‘functional fitness’ tossed around. What does that REALLY mean and do any of YOUR workouts address functional fitness?

Answer: Challenge Fat Loss utilizes functionally sound exercises. You’ll be using bodyweight and simple DB moves to strengthen tighten and tone your entire body. You’ll move better, you’ll get stronger and leaner while reducing your chance of injury. You’ll find a TON of variety to hit your body from every angle. My program is progressive and periodized so you’ll gradually increase your intensity. It’s intended to be used 3-5 times a week and I make it easy for you since the workouts are short and done at home with a minimal amount of space and equipment.

Don’t be misled, Challenge Fat Loss workouts are functional, but they are a challenge.

Here’s a great circuit using functional fitness principles and HIIT:

Do 30 seconds of work with a 5 second transition:
Box jump or step up
Push up (incline, prone or decline)
Prisoner squat jumps
Get ups
Prisoner reverse lunge
Plank recovery

Try to complete this for 5 rounds for under 20 minutes of fat burning functional fun.

For more challenging fat loss and functional workouts, head to Challenge Fat Loss:

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Question: I want to do your Challenge workouts, specifically some Challenge Complexes but I have a lot of back pain. I’m not making much progress, what should I do?

Answer: It’s likely that your core could use some strengthening. Take a look at what I feel to be the best and safest ab strengthening exercise from Exercises for Injury guru, Rick Kaselj. This is a great place to start, as your core strengthens, you’ll be able to safely load up the complexes:

Rick suggests ‘planking’ to strengthen the core and back. If you can’t do the advanced moves in the video, just start with a static plank. From there, once you can do a static plank for about one minute, move to:

• get ups (high plank to low plank)
• mountain climbers
• T planks

Ensure that your hips do NOT rock and that they stay stable. Widen the stance of the feet if necessary.

Rick is the master of pain 😉 Well, of ‘fixing’ your pain that is.

Check out Fix My Back Pain here.

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Flattered that someone thinks my head belongs on the body of a super hero 😉

Ha!

SO many people ask me what my ‘secret’ is to being 50 and still having visible abs.

I can tell you that I’m just like you. I’m not anything special. If anything, my genes are somewhat lacking. I have pasty blue skin and bad eyesight. However, I’ve worked with what I was given and made the best of things, just like you have to do.

A big piece of looking good is obviously related to your habits and nutrition and that’s what I want to talk about today.

In terms of nutrition, you’ll be hearing a lot more about the specifics as my new program, Challenge Diet, gets ready to launch in March 2014, but today, I want to share a little about my schedule, a sample nutrition day and what supplements I use. (This was requested by a reader.)

You’ll see that a good part of my day is spent being sedentary, after all, who do you think writes all these posts and emails?

I may be good at multi-tasking, but I can’t write and do burpees or jump rope at the same time 😉

So, firstly: I DO NOT workout for hours a day.

And secondly,  I DO NOT starve myself.

However, here’s a confession for times of stress in my life: if anything, I’m a stress ‘non-eater’. Now don’t hate me for not eating at times of stress – this can be as detriment to health as overeating. When stressed, I may not gain weight, but my adrenals are taxed, sleep is difficult, and eating is tough.  My energy is low, my workouts suffer and I fear for losing shapely hard earned sexy muscle.

I want to make it clear that although we all experience stress from time to time, we can’t use that as an excuse for our physique. I know I’m a stress ‘non-eater’ so I need to make plans to include healthy foods into my day, just like the overeater needs to plan to include healthy foods and portions on their plate.

Although no day is ‘typical’ so to speak,  this is what my day looks like today. On other days, I teach my own fitness boot camp (1-2 days a week), and if that’s the case, I get up at 4 am and teach until 8, then the rest of the day looks similar.

6 am – Half lemon in water – You can read all the benefits of this ritual here (I’ve noticed a difference in my energy and I think it helps me stay lean.)

6:15 am – Coffee (My guilty pleasure: cream and a packet of stevia)

6:15 – 8 am – Magic time for creativity (writing). Feed and walk Sev, have breakfast which may be:

• Greek yogurt, tbsp. protein powder and berries, walnuts
• Steel cut oatmeal with berries, Greek yogurt and a tbsp protein powder and walnuts
• Protein pancake (recipe here scroll down a bit)
• Protein shake (I’ll generally just use protein powder, greens and water)

8:30 – 11 am – GSD (get ‘stuff’ done) – This is more product creation time, writing time etc.

11 am to noon – Workout (Sometime I go to a gym, other times I go to my studio gym in my basement.)

I finish my workout with amino acids. I was taking Creatine, but I’ve found the amino acids are best at helping my strength and maintaining my muscularity.

Noon (ish) – Lunch.

I got a juicer for Christmas and usually make my favorite juice concoction that includes spinach, broccoli, a small carrot, small apple and fresh ginger. (If Hannah is home, she’ll juice for both of us and she throws every vegetable she can find in.)

A sample lunch may be some protein from the previous night’s dinner, like leftover fish, flank steak or chicken. Or, I’ll have some scrambled egg whites in coconut oil with avocado. I’ll have a handful of berries or half a banana for dessert.

12:30-4 pm – More time to GSD. This includes more writing, connecting with my assistant, colleagues, coaching calls with clients, customer emails…you know, basic world domination 😉

4 pm – Snack time and time to walk Sev. Snack examples may include things like almonds and an apple, ‘pudding’ (Greek yogurt and protein powder and fruit), a Biotrust cookie or half a Biotrust protein bar.

5 – 6:30 pm – Chores, feed Sev, make dinner, etc.

6:30 pm (ish) – Dinner

Dinners are usually a protein source (I’m eating beef and chicken again, for a while it was only fish) and two veggies. For example, I may make salmon, roasted Brussel sprouts and broccoli.

7:30 – 9 or 10 pm – Hang out time with the kids or more work if they aren’t around and walk Sev again.

Maybe I’ll have tea with Hannah but usually I don’t eat much after dinner.

I didn’t mention the other supplements I use daily that includes a quality multi vitamin, vitamin D and fish oil (I use this).

You can see I don’t do anything ‘over the top’.

I have a pretty consistent bedtime and wake time (expect for boot camp days where I get up at an unreasonable 4 am – ug).

Keep in mind, I modeled this day after a typical Monday. All bets are off if I’m traveling or at an event, but you can be sure that my supplements stay the same and I do my best to keep my nutrition similar.

One of the BEST ways to meet your fitness and fat loss goals is plain old CONSISTENCY.  Making small healthy choices day in and day out help.

Here’s a tip that’s helped many of my clients: One day/one meal at a time. All you need to consider is making a good choice for each snack or meal or getting off your butt for a particular workout. Don’t think of your entire life of never having your favorite chips (insert what you crave most here) again. Just take baby steps towards your goals.

Oh, I forgot to mention, that at least ONCE a week, I’ll eat ‘whatever’ my heart desires for a meal. I try to make it sort of an event, versus stuffing food down my throat standing over the sink or with the fridge door open (you know we’ve all done that before 😉

This helps balance the hormones (like leptin) that help keep me lean. If you feel like your leptin levels are outta whack, many of my clients have tried this supplement and it’s helped them drop weight.

What’s YOUR day like? Do you prioritize your health?

If you don’t, it’s time to start to make ONE healthy change this week. Next week you can take on another change.

I hope that gives you some perspective.