Christmas 1981 I got this book, leg warmers and a matching leotard from my mama.
My career began! I found my calling!
Jane Fonda workouts had lots of leg lifts and lots and lots of repetitions!
Did you know that she was on the right track? Her moves do recruit the glutes.
These moves do have merit! If you don’t believe me, check out my favorite Glute Guy, Bret Contreras’s research on the subject!
My video today is a very basic Jane Fonda series. This can be a good warm up too.
Be sure your hips stay stacked up and you don’t roll backwards. Keep your core super tight!
My favorite, end of the week burners are to add fire bands to your legs for resistance. If you travel
you must carry your band! You can really work those glutes!
Leotard is not required with this series!
straight leg lift toe pointed 10
straight leg lift toe flexed 10
straight leg lift leg in front of you 10
diamond clam 10
regular clam 10
It’s glute day!! So let’s talk about all the things that we want in our glutes! Well.. we want them to be lifted! Nice and round like a peach!
No saggy baggy diaper booties! No flatty patty secretary bum!
I am all about finding the best ways to train the glutes for the best results! I love this variation of the thruster/bridge.
I started with a bosu and a box for my shoulders. Place your foot right in the center of the ball and stay in your heel!
As you lift up, squeeze like you are holding on to the winning lottery ticket! Keep pressing!
I added Batteman into this mix and combined it with the thrust. Batteman is one of my secret weapons! It’s from ballet and I use it so often to create a beautiful back of the leg. Think of a “Rockettes” kick. Aim for your forehead, even if you can’t reach it! As you kick, keep your core from wibble wobbling!
The burn out is a crossed leg until you bleed from your eyeballs!
xoxo
Deads 135 is my PR. I’m happy and proud! This is almost my body weight.
My team at Sleek Body began their Bikini Challenge 7 weeks ago. We have been tracking our personal records and seeing amazing strength gains. We have lost over 219 pounds in our studio in that short amount of time.
Our bodies cannot continue the exponential strength gains at the rate at which we are seeing it in our first 7 weeks. Many of our clients are now squatting their body weight. Our program is very intense so we incorporated a studio wide deload week.
I needed a deload more than any of our clients!!
This is how I was feeling
Tired
Hungry
Bloated
Didn’t feel like lifting (what??)
A bit down in the dumps
cold!
Scale is stuck!
Can’t sleep.. melatonin isn’t working.. ugh.
Those are symptoms of over training. My natural inclination as Type A, driven, women is to take no prisoners and keep pushing past it. DO MORE!
When I feel like this, I have recognized that it is time for a deload or recovery week.
My deload week consisted of no cardio. A few days of no training and some light workouts to keep active. I slept as much as I could and added more food to my plan.
I also increased my vitamin C. All this at the advice of my mentor.
I was pushing too much and I felt terrible.
This week, if you would have handed me a heavy weight I think I might have dropped it on your toe. I felt incredibly weak.
On Friday, I did pilates springs and some box thrusts.
On Saturday, we headed to the gym to get my leg workout in.
I had incredible gains. I felt amazing. I want to stress to you, that I am not a naturally strong strong girl. These numbers are milestones for me. I am ecstatic at my lift for Saturday. My last PR for Squats was 115# and 95# for deads. That was a few weeks ago. Last week, I dropped my back squat weight to 65 pounds and did A2G (@ss to grass) squats with a quicker pace.
March 1, 2014 Barbell Bench Thursts:
135 3×8 Back Squats
95 1×10
105 1×10
115 1×10
135 2×10
135 1×5
My last PR was 115. I did 135 2×12.
Sumo Deads
115 3×12 RDL
135 3×12
Leg press
470 3×12
How to deload:
Cutting your weight back:
A good practice is to work at about 50-60 percent of your max weight you are used to using. I hope you are writing down your gains each day. This is really important so you’ll know if you aren’t seeing personal records. Our clients still lifted 3 sets of 8-10 reps but at 50-60 percent of their max.
Same weight, less reps
You can still train heavy and do less reps. This doesn’t work for me, because I am usually just too worn out to lift my heaviest weight. I have to drop back the intensity.
This is hard but necessary for me mentally. See Type A.
Stretch/recovery
You can simply do yoga, Pilates or stretching as well as a simple deload.
Diet :
You can leave your diet the same during your deload. I added more food at the advice of my mentor. I feel better having switched it up. Remember, I was in my prep and now I’m not. So this was a good week for fresh starts.
I do a deload every 6 -7 weeks. I did not practice this in my last prep. I wish I had. I will see how much better my recovery is this time around. I’m 17 weeks out.
Do you practice deloading??
Post show.. I always deload my clients. You’ll have a lighter week and breathe, rest and recover. Now.. remember when I said.. listen to your body? It’s actually telling you something really important!!
On Wednesday, I do my metabolic/plyo with my clients in my studio. This is my new fav finisher for our legs. This is the Olympic Bar Step back. My dear friend and client, Sara is demonstrating this move. Let me tell you the burn is insane.
To do this, use your bar, start with soft knees and booty in the back seat. Step back into your lunge and pulse 10 in the hole. Power back up and repeat on the second side. We did 6 sets of this.
I went to Club today and knocked these out. Sara makes these look simple. That bar is heavy!
Let me know how you do.
So this week I was very diligent with my leg workout. I did 2 heavy leg days and 1 extra credit day. This is my double bench squat to dead lift set. In the early part of the week I had done heavy squats and deads using the long bar. This is more of a finisher. I’m really fatigued by weeks end. I have to listen to my body and lift a bit lighter. I used 40,45,50 for my sets. Eight squats to 8 deads. I like the longer range of motion for this move.
