The Funtastic 40!

Happy Friday Everyone,
After a 2 week break I am back to the FITE Club.  "Break" is probably not the best word to describe my hiatus from the club.  Over the past 2 weeks I have run the Gator Gauntlet Mud Run, traveled to Destin, Fl. for a wedding and have been going through all the steps to buy a new house.  But, with all that it feels good to back to my Friday morning adventures.

This week Robin is off in Mexico enjoying a little vacation so we had to keep up the intensity while she is gone.  Today I had planned a special birthday workout for Jim, but everyone was thankful that he was out of town.  The plan was to complete 58 repetitions of every exercise to celebrate Jim's 58th birthday.  But, since Jim was on vacation we did the Funtastic 40 instead.

Here we go...

Warm up using the TRX suspension trainers:

1. TRX forward lunge/ chest stretch- 20 reps
2. TRX deep squats- 20
3. TRX Push ups- 20
4. TRX Body rows- 20

Then...
Core Series: 30 seconds of work, 10 seconds rest. 3 Rounds

1. SB Plank/ Plank
2. SB Bridge pullover
3. Sky Divers

Time to JAM!- 40 repetitions of each exercise.  3 or 4 rounds depending on time

1. 1/4 mile run or 400 meter row
2. Kettle Bell front squats (goblet or rack position)- 40
3. SB Push ups - 40 (I actually forgot these during the workout today, but they were in my program)
4. SB Prone dumbbell row- 40
5. KB Pass through lunges- 20 each leg (40 total)
6. Medicine Ball Russian twist- 40

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Living Life with No Excuses!... No Regrets!
Scott

This is My Motivation!

Good Morning and Happy Friday!
I think we all need something to motivate us.  Some times it is an internal drive, and sometimes it is an external push from somebody or something. 

This is one of the main things that motivates me to everyday do something to get better.

My daughter Reese

Find that motivation and do everything it takes to be successful at whatever you are trying to accomplish. 

... now, on to todays FITE Club workout.  Robin is jetsetting off to NYC so it was just me and the other 12 clubbers today.  For todays workout we did one of my favorite circuits.  This is a Turkish Get up (TGU) progression circuit.  Each exercise in this circuit represents a portion of the TGU.

Set up 9 stations.  Complete 60 seconds at each station and repeat 3-4 times through.

1. Body Bar sit up reach
2. Kettle Bell Plank row (with push up)
3. Kettle Bell Swing
4. Lunge with MB rotation
5. KB Clean- press
6. KB Windmill
7. KB Goblet squat
8. "Ropes gone wild" (rope slams... nothing to do with the TGU, but kicks your ass!)
9. KB Turkish get up

DO WORK!!

Living Life with no Regrets!... No Excuses!
Scott

"Do Work"- "Manual Labor" Day Style

Good morning everyone and day happy day after Labor Day.

Today we did some major work, Labor Day style. The gym was packet and it was great to see so many people working out on their day off. As I told my client Sharen, "fat never takes a day off", why should we! I dubbed today's workout the "Manual Labor" day workout.

This was a 6 exercise circuit that we did each exercise for 60 seconds followed by a 15 second rest. Then repeated the entire circuit 3-4 times.

Warm Up:
We started the workout with some self myofascial release on a foam roll then did 1000 meters on the rowing machine.

1. Dynamax Tall box lifts ( placed 2 plyo boxes on top of each other at about 60 inches, then lifted to ball from the ground to the top of the box, repeat till time is up)
2. Sledge hammer lunge chops(change legs after 30 seconds)
3. Dynamax bucket toss (change sides after 30 seconds)
4. Kettle Bell dead lifts
5. Tube metabolic back (20 rows, 20 alternating rows, 20 swimmers. Keep repeating till time is up)
6. Partner rope pulls (heavy rope attached to water filled kick boxing bag. Pull 20 yards to partner then keep repeating till time is up)

Have fun with this one! and remember to......

Train for Life!
Scott

F.I.T.E Club Workout!!

Well, Robin and her summer travel schedule are in full swing so she handed off the FITE club to me again this morning.

We had a pretty good turnout, but it could have been better if I would have sent a text like we usually do. Sorry Adam, Meghan, and Kristen. But at least I saw you guys working hard on your own, good job!! Christie was sick this week , so hopefully she feels better and we get her back next week.

On to the workout:

This is a timed workout. You will start the timer at the beginning, perform the below circuit 3 times through. Be sure you record your 1/4 mile interval time each round, and then record your total workout time at the end.

You want to beat your own 1/4 time each time.


1. Kettle Bell or DB double clean to press 10X
a. BOSU Slide board mountain climbers 20X
b. BOSU Plank hold 20 sec.

2. KB or DB lunge variation 10 each leg
a. BOSU Slide board mountain climbers 20X
b. BOSU Plank hold 20 sec.

3. KB or DB Renegade Row 10 each arm
a. BOSU Slide board mountain climbers 20X
b. BOSU Plank hold 20 sec.

4. KB/ DB Turkish Get ups 3 each side
a. BOSU Slide board mountain climbers 20X
b. BOSU Plank hold 20 sec.

5. KB/ DB Lateral lunge to lateral raise 10 each side
a. BOSU Slide board mountain climbers 20X
b. BOSU Plank hold 20 sec.

6. 1/4 mile interval (run, bike, or row)


RESULTS:
1/4 mile times:
M. (run) 1) 2:08 2) 2:04 3) 1:54
D. (run) 1) 2:07 2) 2:03 3) 2:02
H. (run) 1) ? 2) 1:59 3) 1:55
S. (run) 1) 1:45 2) 1:40 3) 1:33
J. (row) 1) 2:20 2) 2:15 3) 2;15
M. (run)

Total time:
S. 37:58
D. 38:03
M. 38:05
H. 39:17
J. ~40
M.

Finisher: (we didn't have time for the complete finisher, so we just did the farmers carries
F1. Team Farmers Carry relay
F2. Team heavy bag rope pull then push

Hope you all enjoy it.

Train For Life!
Scott

"Take heavy Sh** and lift it over your head!!"

Hey Everyone, You never know what tomorrow holds... I am definitely a schedule guy. I like to know what I am doing and when I am doing it well before I actually do it. These past two weeks has been a great test for me to see how well I can manage off of my normal schedule? We all have unexpected challenges that occur throughout our lives and how you handle those challenges, I believe, comes from preparation and planning. Over the past couple of weeks I have had to mix in unexpected travel with expected travel, while rescheduling and juggling my client load to help accommodate my wife's travel schedule. As is life as a dad, husband, and a fitness professional. I know that I am preaching to the choir, but despite all the craziness in my schedule I have been able to eat well (healthy), and stay consistent with my workouts. All thanks to proper planning and execution. Here are a couple of workouts and tips I have heard and done over the past week. Tip #1: The secret to fitness results"Take heavy shit and lift it over your head" Thomas Plummer..... sounds pretty simple Tip #2: "The 5,4,3,2,1, rule" Brett Klika (Fitness Quest 10) 5- Have 5 small meals a day. 4- Have a least 4 pints of water per day (more if you are an athlete) 3- eat every 3 hours. 2- Look at the ingredients in your food. There should be no more than 2 ingredients. 1-? I didn't hear them say a #1, so I will throw in my own, have at least 1 serving of fish oil per day(serving size will vary per person) Workout #1 -Dynamic Warm-up, 10-12 min. -Core Series Stability Ball Plank, 45 sec. Side Plank, 20 sec. each side TRX resisted rotation -Strength Kettle Bell Swing, pick a weight, 30 sec. TRX Atomic Push-ups, 30 sec. Kettle Bell swing curl, 30 sec. Kettle Bell goblet squat, pick a weight, 30 sec. (complete the 4 exercises above as a circuit. 45 seconds rest between sets. Complete 4- 5 sets.) -Finisher(metabolic) Val slide mountain climbers, 30 sec. Plate pushes, 30 meters Rope whips, 30 seconds Dynamax slam squats, 30 seconds. (complete the above as a circuit, 2-3 times.) Workout #2 -Dynamic Warm-up -Core Series Medicine Ball S2S(side to side) slams, 20 reps Stability ball kneeling role outs, 15 reps Reverse crunches -Strength Split squats(back foot on bench), pick a weight, 15 reps each side, 3 sets Push-up variations, to fatigue, 3 sets Kettle Bell single arm snatch, pick a weight, 15 reps each side, 3 sets Kettle Bell renegade row (plank row), 8 reps each arm, 3 sets -Finisher Burpees broad jumps, 10 reps Medicine ball toe taps, 30 taps Sky divers, 15 reps (complete the above as a circuit, 2-3 times.) Train For Life! Scott

"12 Days of Christmas" The Workout, 2010 Edition

Hi Everyone,
Well, it's that time of Year again. Time for my annual 12 Days of Christmas workout.
Enjoy!

Living Life with No Regrets......No Excuses!
Scott

The Turkey Burner Workout

Hi Everyone,
It's Thanksgiving today and most of us will be spending the day with our families being thankful for all we have.......

And most of us will also spend today overindulging in all the great foods that our families make....... so here is a great calorie burning workout to help counter the overeating.

1. 500 meter row
2. 50 burpees or dumbbell thruster jumps
3. 250 meter row
4. 50 single arm kettle bell swings (each arm)
5. 250 meter row
6. 50 box jumps (18- 24 inch box)
7. 250 meter row
8. 50 hanging knee ups
9. 250 meter row
10. 50 skydivers or prone cobras
11. 1000 meter row.

Have fun, and leave me comments with your best time to complete this workout.

Living life with No Regrets........ No Excuses.
Scott

30 min Halloween Circuit

Happy almost Halloween everyone,
Halloween is right around the corner! For some reason it is one of my favorite holidays?

Keep you training on schedule and get in the Halloween spirit by completing this Halloween themed circuit.

This is a 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, 5 exercise circuit (50-10-5). I used a Halloween themed track for Workout Muse, but you can use any interval timer set to 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest.

I also used some "Halloween" implements, but I will list alternative is parenthesis in case your gym does not have all the fun things that we have at Gainesville Health and Fitness.

1. Heavy Chain (dumbbell) Thruster
2. Kettle Bell (dumbbell) Renegade Rows
3. Cable Torso Rotations (change side at 25 second mark)
4. Pumpkin (medicine ball) Diagonal Wood chops (change sides at 25 second mark)
5. Body weight "plyo" Lunges

Take 1 min. rest after completing the circuit, then repeat for a total of 5 rounds. This workout should take about 30 minutes to complete.

Enjoy, and Happy Halloween.

Living Life with No Regrets............ No Excuses....
Scott

Quick Tip- Are you truly training your back??

Hi Everyone,
As I watch people training around the gym one of the exercises that I most frequently see done wrong is the row and every variation of the row. What I usually see is a very ugly bicep exercise that never truly touches the muscles of your back.

So, next time you train your back follow these basic form principles:
1. "Sit up tall". Keep your chest up and pull your shoulder blades(scapula) back. You must retract or pull back your shoulder blades to properly work the muscles of the back (lats, and rhomboids). All to often I watch people "hunching" forward, rounding their shoulders and then pull the weight to their chest without actually moving their shoulder blades. All this is doing is working your biceps while promoting poor posture.
2. Don't "hike" your shoulders. It is important to keep your shoulder blades down and back while performing the row. It is very common for people to be very dominant in their upper traps, which will make them hike their shoulders up towards their ears as they row. The result of this form error is usually a tight and sore neck from over working your upper traps.
3. Don't sway. Another common form error I witness is people gaining excess momentum from swaying their entire upper torso while they perform the row. This is usually the result of the weight being to heavy. This motion will indeed work the upper back effectively as long as the previously mentioned principles are met, however, you are also working the lower back under a very heavy load which can also lead to unnecessary soreness and possible injury.

Next time you train your back be sure that you follow these basic form principles and you will "Truly be training your back!"


Living life with No regrets...... No excuses.....
Scott

Calorie Killing Circuit- Tabata Style!

Hi Everyone,
Well I am back after a 3 week layoff from the blog world. I guess the bottom line is I just didn't really have anything to exciting to write about? But, I am OK with that, because I would rather post some really good content, than just put up a bunch of crap just to say I posted something new.

Today I have for you a major Calorie Killing workout, Tabata style!! Check out this video, then give it a try.



Peace,
Scott



This is a Tabata style circuit designed to kill major calories. Perform each exercise for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest. Take 1 min rest at the end of each circuit then repeat for a total of 5 rounds!!

Getting Better Every Day!!

Hey Everyone,
I hope you had a great weekend. After an incredible personal training staff retreat on Friday I started my week off feeling invigorated, re-charged, and re-focused!! I had a very productive day followed by an awesome workout and 1 mile jog with my son. So, I though I would share with you what we do to getter better, and build an incredible team.

This year our retreat started with an "Amazing Race" themed road rally. All 50 personal trainers, small group trainers and pilates instructors were broken into 4 teams, then they had to race through 3 different locations completing both mental and physical team building challenges at each stop. The race concluded with the teams finding their way to the "secret" retreat location...... Camp Kulaqua. The last team to arrive would be the penalty team. This year the penalty team would have to make lunch for all of the trainers, and for a little bit of fun we had to compose and perform a rap song......... you may have noticed I said "we", because my team was the penalty team. In 10 years, this is my first time being on the penalty team, and believe it or not it was a blast!!

Once at Camp Kulaqua the teams took part in a low elements challenge course. This was followed by a little free time in the springs catapulting fellow trainers off the "blob" into the springs. Next was penalty team time. We had to prep and serve salads and sandwiches for everyone. Once lunch was complete it was our time to take the stage and perform our rap song. It was a hit!!..... if I do say so myself:) Stay tuned to future blogs for the video I will be putting together.

Awards time!! This part is always fun. In the month leading up to the retreat we polled the trainers to find winners for various awards such as: Most Improved, Most intimidating, Life Saver, Loudest, Hardest working, Most creative, Spunkiest, Most unpredictable, Most likely to go into politics, and finally The Trainer of the Year Award which went to Rod Clark. Very well deserved.

Now it was time for out "Minute to win it" team challenges. These were games that we had to compete against each other based on the TV show "Minute to win" We completed 11 or 12 games. (which will also be in the upcoming video) The winning team was awarded the coveted screaming chicken in a boot.

After a day like that I was excited to get back to training on Monday. I had a great workout (see below), then went home and played football and baseball with Jacob followed by a 1 mile run as Jacob road his bike next to me.

So, with all that said. I leave you today with maybe a not so simple question. What are you going to do this week to get better? It doesn't matter what you will be getting better at. Whether it is your business life, your personal life, your fitness, your nutrition, your education..... As long as your are doing something to get better every day. I will give you 1 hint. It all starts with a plan. It took us a couple months to plan out this team building retreat, but it was without a doubt worth the time, energy, and investment!!

So good luck, and to get you started on Getting Better here is Mondays Killer workout!

A1. Single arm kettle bell (KB) clean (or dumbbell)
A2. Cable single leg romanian dead lift with a single are row
A3. Reverse crunch

B1. Step up with a bicep curl
B2. KB sumo dead lift
B3. Stability ball plank roll out

C1. Lunge with rotational medicine ball toss
C2. Stability ball triple play (bridge, ham curls, and glut press)
C3. Stability ball russian twist.

So, again, what are you going to do this week to get better? Leave me a comment below and let me know.
Scott

Killer Kettle Bells: Power, Endurance Ladder Circuit

Hey Everyone,
Today I wanted to share with you a killer kettle bell workout that takes Power and Endurance to a whole new level.

WARNING: This workout is not for the weak at heart!!!!

One of the things that keeps me fresh and motivated as a personal trainers is actually being "trained" myself sometimes. When you look around the fitness industry and the industry of personal training specifically, a common thread you will see of your "Top" personal trainers is that they either work out with other personal trainers as training partners or they will actually hire a personal trainer themselves at some point in their career.

Fortunately for me, we have surrounded ourselves at Gainesville Health and Fitness with incredibly talented personal trainers! And for the past 2 or 3 months I have been making it a point to take Brandon Rosin's "Kettle Bell Basics" class as often as possible.

Wednesday's workout was an absolute killer! I could have ran five miles and still not have taken my heart rate to the level I did today. And this was actually a "Power" workout?

So, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. I highly recommend wearing gloves with this workout to prevent the 2 ripped and bloody calluses that I experienced today:)....(sorry for the graphic image)

This circuit is done as 1 continuous set with rest as needed, but in reality it is 10 sets....don't worry I will explain.

Set 1 is 1 repetition of each exercise, so be sure you select a weight that is pretty heavy for you.
Then go straight into set #2, which will be 2 reps of each exercise, followed by set #3 with 3 reps of each exercise....... by now you should see the pattern.... all the way to the 10th set with 10 reps of each exercise. You will probably have to decrease your weight somewhere around set 5 or 6?

(KB= Kettle Bells. You can use dumbbells in place of KB's if you need to)
1. KB single arm snatch
2. KB single arm clean
3. KB single arm swing
4. KB single arm high pull.