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Articles! Videos! Musings on Fitness!​

It's Getting Hot In Here: An Easy Warmup Exercise To Help You Feel Toasty

1/18/2018

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I’m a HUGE fan of rocking for a variety of reasons:

  • It’s easy but can be progressed to feel more challenging
  • It helps reestablish better posture
  • It integrates your upper body with the lower body
  • It’s super safe
  • It’s soothing (you rock babies to sleep after all, right?)
  • AND, it really gets the blood pumping, gets your core temperature up and helps you forget, even if only momentarily, that it’s cold outside.
Here's a video showing you how it's done:
Let's break it down:

  1. Get onto your hands and knees, hands right under shoulders, knees right under hips.
  2. Look up with your eyes and keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth; breath in and out through your nose.
  3. Don’t think about bringing your belly button to your spine here, just let your belly hang :)
  4. Rock your hips back toward your feet (toes can be tucked or pointed, up to you) and then rock forward. Make sure you’re not holding your breath.

You can play with the direction you go in (you don’t have to go forwards and backwards, you can also go side to side, in a circle, diagonally; go nuts!).

You can play with tempo (go slowly or quickly).


You can play with taking one limb off the floor while you rock (so, for example, reach one arm straight out in front of you and do a few slow rockbacks and then switch arms; does it feel different from one side to another? You can also do this reaching one leg straight back. You get the idea.)

You can also lift your knees off the ground an inch and slowly go back and forth (again, make sure you’re breathing!). The first time I did this variation, my quads were so sore!

The rockback is also a great, safe way to either warm up your squat pattern or to reestablish your squat if your body’s had a really hard time getting into that position during training sessions.

Rockbacks can be really great to help with mobility in arthritic knees, hips or shoulders! Don’t go into pain but slowly play with the range of motion you can manage. If you have tender knees, make sure there’s padding underneath them and if kneeling on the floor is still too much, elevate yourself by placing your hands on a steady chair or bench and your knees off the ground.

In terms of how to incorporate this into your own workout, there are a few things you can do: 
  • Use it as part of your warmup
  • Do a variation between sets
  • Use it to pattern your squat before doing them
  • Or just do them on their own any time you get a break to move around a little! (And if you don't "have" time in your day, make time. You only need a minute or two!)
​

So play on and warm up, friends!
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A Plank Routine That Gives You Buff Arms AND a Strong Core? Yes, Please!

12/13/2017

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This month's Do-It-At-Home exercise is a scorcher! TruFit Evanston trainer Sarah Laspas takes us through this compound plank exercise that you can use as your whole workout OR work into a routine.

Here's what Sarah has to say about this exercise:
"While sit-ups and crunches may get you 'vanity abs', they aren’t particularly effective when it comes to strengthening your entire mid-section, which is the make-or-break step in laying a solid fitness foundation. Since trading in traditional sit-ups and crunches for exercises like the one I demonstrate in the video, my core is the strongest it’s ever been, I no longer dread doing ab work, and I don’t experience lower back pain anymore.

I recommend doing core work throughout your workout rather than saving it all until the end, otherwise it becomes way too tempting to skip it all together. One way that works for me is to do a core-centric exercise in between sets of another exercise that doesn’t work the same muscles. For example, I might do the exercise shown in the video in between sets of squats with hammer curls, but I would not do it in between sets of push-ups or shoulder presses because the plank variations in the exercise require your chest and shoulder muscles to do some work."


Ok, are you ready and intrigued?? Let's watch!
Let's recap the exercise directions:
  1. Get yourself into a high side plank position on your right side (this means your right hand is lined up under your right shoulder and your feet are stacked one on top of the other or staggered; squeeze your butt cheeks).
  2. Take your left arm and reach it underneath your waist, making sure not to rotate your hips, and then reach back up to the ceiling. Do this twice.
  3. In one piece, rotate yourself into a high front plank. From here lower yourself into a low plank one arm at a time and come back up into a high plank. Do this twice, leading with the right arm. Your ending position will be a high front plank. (Challenge: See if you can do this without moving your hips side to side.)
  4. From here, rotate yourself into a high side plank on your left side.
  5. Take your right arm and reach it underneath your waist, making sure not to rotate your hips, and then reach back up to the ceiling. Do this twice.
  6. Once again, rotate yourself into a high front plank. You'll repeat going into a low plank and back to a high plank twice again but this time will lead with your left arm.
  7. And, like Sarah says, you can either repeat this routine for as long as you can or you can do it for a certain number or repetitions (like 3-5 on each side, for example).
Now, for an at-home circuit like the one Sarah was suggesting, here's a little something you could do (click on the exercise names for videos):
Exercise 1: Goblet squats 10-15x (if you don't have weights at home, try holding something like laundry detergent or a big book)
Exercise 2: Prone swimmers 15x each side
Exercise 3: Single leg reaches 10-15x each side
Exercise 4: SARAH'S AWESOME EXERCISE!

Do each exercise back to back as a circuit for 20-30 minutes! And you'll be SMOKED and ready to conquer the world!

Try it out, let us know what you think by leaving us a comment!

To learn more about Sarah, head to her website or email her at sarahlaspas@gmail.com!
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Your Holiday Hotel Room Workout!

11/17/2017

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Holiday season is here and a lot of us will be traveling! And, you know, we all WANT to work out but sometimes we have hurdles: We don't know where to work out, we don't know what to do, we don't have equipment, we don't have time.

We at TruFit Personal Training Studios want to remedy that for you! Below you'll find a workout that you can do almost anywhere, that's spelled out for you, that doesn't really require equimpent and that should just take you 30-45 minutes (after a quick warm up)!

Check it out below (with the sound on)! Do it, share it, love it, share it, leave your comments below, share it... Enjoy!
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The Do It At Home Series: Sliding Lateral Lunges

10/11/2017

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This month, Mary Cox is going to show us a booty and inner thigh blaster that you can do at the gym and in the comfort of your own home!
Mary explains this exercise SUPER well and here are the biggest points to keep in mind:
  • Keep your knees and toes pointed straight ahead
  • Keep a neutral spine throughout the movement
  • Think about pushing the sliding leg away from you as you hinge your hips back and pulling it back in as you stand up
  • Keep your center of gravity on top of your standing leg

If you're looking for sliders to use at home, you can find them here!

To learn more about Mary, click here!
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The Do It At Home Series: Multifidus Lift

5/25/2017

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This month Sonny, one of the awesome trainers at TruFit Personal Training Studios, is demonstrating an exercise you can do pretty much anywhere as long as you have something as simple as a book! 

The Multifidus Lift is an exercise that helps strengthen these deep core muscles to help us move more functionally through life with a lot less lower back pain! So pay attention if you sit a lot during the day or spend a lot of time in the car becasue this one's for you.

First some quick anatomy in case you don't know what the multifidus is. 
Picture
The multifidi muscles run up and down the spine, laying superficially on top of it. This deep core muscle helps stabilize the vertabrae so they can work in a more healthy and efficient way. In other words, strong and functional multifidi = happy back!
What you'll need: A yoga block or a book.
The set up:
  • Place your yoga block or book against a wall
  • Get into tabletop position (hands under shoulders, knees under hips) with the inside knee on top of the block/book
Some great cues:
  • ​Imagine the fall is on fire so that you don't lean against it
  • Imagine there is a dry martini glass on your low back; don't let it fall
  • Lift up your outside hip up by bringing the outside knee up 
  • Exhale as you lift up, inhale on the way down
Sonny says to try holding the up position for 10 seconds (don't forget to breath) and build up to 10 reps on each side. 

Give it a try for a few weeks and start paying attention to how your body and your daily movements -- bending, twisting, reaching for things -- feel!

To get in touch with Sonny for a consultation, you can reach him by phone at 630-640-0013 or at nsonnyle@gmail.com!
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The Do-It-At-Home Series: Bird Dogs!

4/27/2017

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Ah, bird dogs. This looks like such a simple exercise but we trainers see it done incorrectly so often (which is silly because then you don't get the benefits of the exercise!). Here, personal trainer Kathryn Lehner breaks down why she loves the exercise, how to do it and how to make it harder.
Some great cues: 
  • ​​Look forward with your eyes
  • Keep thumbs pointed up when you reach
  • Kick your heel back like you're pushing off against the wall behind you
  • Keep shoulders and hips tight so your spine doesn't move
  • Don't forget to breathe
So why is this such a popular exercise? Here are a few reasons:
  • The cross-body movement is super good for your brain and helps you move more efficiently when you walk or run!
  • It helps coordinate your hips and shoulders. Your body doesn't work as separate parts; it's meant to work as a unit! 
  • It helps teach your core to work reflexively so you don't have to think so hard about it!

You can do this daily as part of a movement flow, as a warmup before a workout or even between exercises as a reset. 

To book a consultation with Kathryn, email her directly at kathryn.lehner@gmail.com  or call 847-312-4578!

Move around and feel good, everyone!
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