Monday Workout: Add Extension!

This week’s lunges have a special feature.  We’re going to do them with our arms holidng a dowel (or very light body bar) overhead and a friend to pull up on the bar to help us increase our thoracic extension while we do them.  This is helpful for improving posture.  It also helps us remember to keep our shoulders over our hips while lunging.  (If you do not have a friend to help you, just keep your arms overhead:  it’s more work!)  Three rounds.

squats/jump squats	30
flies	20
Arnold press	10
step or jump ups	30
lunges with extension	20
pushups	10
suitcase swings	30
bent over rows	20
roll out abs	10

I am on vacation

See you next week!

Monday Workout: Suitable for Travel

I am away on vacation, but that doesn’t mean I won’t post a workout!  All body weight, usual 30/20/10 format, three rounds:

mountain climbers

squats

pushups

plyojacks

lunges

dips

high knees

side lunges

pretty princesses

Friday Book Report: The Virgin Diet

As I have said more than once, I don’t love diet books.  I am immune/mildly averse to the hyperbolic prose interspersed with amazing success stories.  Apparently, I am not the target audience despite being both female and a fitness professional.  My other disclaimer:  I am not a nutritionist and so I do not make professional recommendations about what anyone should be eating.  (This does not prevent me from suggesting common sense as a guide.)

Given all that, I didn’t hate The Virgin Diet: Why Food Intolerance is the Real Cause of Weight Gain by JJ Virgin.  She recommends eating actual food, with an emphasis on vegetables and clean protein.  Some people may benefit from her 21 day elimination diet, either by discovering previously unknown food sensitivities or simply by eating non-junk food for three weeks.  Unlike some diets, this one isn’t actually bad for anyone and there is no reliance on weird bars or prepackaged meals.

The thrust of the book is that there are seven foods that tend to cause problems for people:  gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, peanuts, and sugar.  Truly wiping them out of anyone’s diet is challenging unless all processed food is avoided.  After three weeks, there are four weeks of testing whether an individual can tolerate gluten, soy, dairy, and eggs.  (Corn, peanuts, and sugar get to live forever in the Avoid If Possible realm.)

It may be worth a try.