Butt Blasting Leg Workout and Thoughts on Caffeine..

The moment is finally here.  I have gotten several requests regarding specific workouts.  I decided I will do my best to let you in on at least a couple of my workouts each week.  Let's be honest, if I posted every single workout it would be exhausting and bombarding you with more information than you choose to care about!  So for this week I am posting my favorite workout of the week:  Heavy Leg Day.

Important to note:  Yes, I generally lead a low-carb lifestyle, with the source of nearly all of my carbohydrates being vegetables.  For this workout, my pre-workout meal about an hour before had some sweet potato and post-workout I had some greek yogurt and a small amount of oats.  As a rule of thumb, try not to consume fats around your workout, after all you want to BURN fat stores you already have so it wouldn't make much sense to put it in your system.

MY definition of good glutes..she is no skinny girl!

Heavy Leg Day:
Warmup - walking in the gym...hahahaha
Standing Hip Abductors - 4 sets, 20 reps (4x20)
Back Squats (rather DETAILED explanation of how I perform these) - 10 sets, 10x45 lb., 8x65, 6x85, 6x95, 6x115, 6x125, 6x125, 6x125, 6x125
Split Squats - 3 sets - 8x65, 6x75, 6x75
Side Step Ups - 3 sets, 10 reps with 30 barbell
Unilateral Leg Press - 3 sets, 8x50, 6x70, 6x90
Standing Calf Raise - 4 sets, 20 reps at 110
Glute Machine (Butt Blaster) - 3 sets, 10 reps
(45 minutes)

Cardio - 20 minute HIIT on stair master consisting of 1:20 work intervals at 1:1 ratio of work:rest. Work intervals at level 15 (of 20) and rest intervals at level 5.  Basically I gave the stair master a bath ;)
(20 minutes)

And in and out of the gym in a little over an hour.  Let me tell you it is now Thursday and I am STILL feeling Tight Tush Tuesday in my tush it IS quite the feeling.  I also have to note that this was a pretty light day for me weight wise because I had not hit legs that hard in a while so I did not want to push the weight.  That being said, when you feel like you are ready to push the weight hard for the 6-8 rep range make sure that you have built yourself up in the 10-15 rep range first.  The link I sent you to for the squat form is the Lab Gym in St. Louis, MO where I used to train.  He has a large collection of videos on You tube that you guys can check out for proper form on nearly every exercise (those worth doing at least!).  Do NOT trust the first link that pops up when you Google some random exercise.  I see some of the most ludicrous things in the gym on a daily basis and sometimes I have to cringe.

Caffeine:

Also a hot topic these days it seems.  This won't take long.  I used to be a caffeine junkie, I will admit.  I believe it is something that is WIDELY abused by the American public.  If you are using a pre-workout with caffeine in it (i.e. "fat-burner") it is not doing ANYTHING for you if you are consuming 2-3 cups of coffee a day.  And before you say, "But I only have 1 cup of coffee a day."  Let me remind you the 1 cup of coffee is defined as about 8 oz. so next time you might want to measure the amount you put in your jumbo mug.  You know who you are.  In any case, it might be wise to switch to decaffeinated so that when you utilize caffeine as a pre-workout stimulant, you actually feel the effects and it can improve your workout.  I only use caffeine when I absolutely need to and the results have been great.  I take in about 50-70 mg pre-workout and I can feel the effects now.  Before, when I was consuming 200-250 mg of caffeine a day I would have felt nothing off of 50-70 mg.  Like any stimulant, you will need to cycle it every 2-3 weeks if you want to keep feeling the effect.  Otherwise you will continue to increase more and more caffeine until it has no effect on you at all.

Tip:  Gradually lower your caffeine to reduce withdrawal effects by using "half-caf" coffee, pouring half cup of coffee and half water, or switching to green tea (usually around 20-30 mg of caffeine in one cup compared to 80-100 mg in coffee).  Comprehensive list of caffeine in various drinks here.  Also, VERY interesting to note for all you Starbucks junkies.  Pay particular attention to paragraph 3.  I mean wow!!

That's all for now, time for some cardio.  One simple YES could change your life forever..

HIIT Cardio: Maximize Your Fat Burn

Let's explore a little further...what is HIIT?  How long?  What intensity?  Why should I do it?

What is HIIT:
I have answered before what HIIT is but to refresh:  High Intensity Interval Training.  Before you scoff and say "I can't do HIGH INTENSITY I am just a beginner," hear me out.  This type of cardio can be done by anyone because it is based on your individual tolerance.  I recommend that you get yourself an inexpensive heart rate monitor and use that to track your progress unless you are one of those freaks like me who judges based on feeling like throwing up!

Duration:
You only need 20-30 minutes to perform you intervals.  They will be short in duration, with each interval lasting approximately 60-90 seconds.  You can alternate work intervals and rest periods until you reach your total time.  The rest period should be long enough for your heart rate to return to 60-75% of your max heart rate or in simple terms, you become "conversational" again.  If you still feel like you can't talk then your heart hasn't recovered enough.  TIP:  Make sure you have some motivational music on for those work intervals to get you really moving!

Mode:
Many have asked what is the best machine for me to use for cardio?  Well the answer is there is no answer.  You can perform HIIT cardio machines such as the elliptical, treadmill, spinning bike, stair mill, or stair stepper, or you can also swim or do sprints outside.  No matter your preference of mode of exercise, you should be able to perform HIIT cardio.  As long as you are taking your heart rate up for a period of time and then letting it recover, you are doing it.  Many bootcamps are run as a HIIT cardio type of routine (and you could argue P90X and Insanity are variations of HIIT).

I like to do HIIT on the elliptical that has the arm movement incorporated so I use my total body.  In the following picture you can see my calorie burn in only 25 minutes.  I set the resistance to 10 (out of 20) and used the intervals on a program to keep track of time.  I alternated 1 minute of work with 1 minute of rest for 20 minutes with a 2.5 minute warmup and cooldown.  On the work minutes I kept the RPM around 85-90 (bustin it!) and on the rest I just tried to keep moving.

25 minute HIIT on elliptical calorie burn

Finally, I wanted to show you all my breakfast today.  I am switching things up a bit and trying organic wheat bran in the morning instead of oats.  It will take some getting used to (I love oats!) but let me give you some reasoning.

Organic Wheat Bran (1/2 cup):  20 g carb (14 g fiber), 0 g fat, 4 g protein, 60 kcal

Whole Grain Oats (1/2 cup):  27 g carb (4 g fiber), 2.5 g fat, 5 g protein, 150 kcal

You could also sub an oat bran as well.  Consider switching to an organic bran over the "whole grain." Basically you are getting the part of the grain that contains the best source of insoluble fiber.  Insoluble fiber is good for keeping the digestive system working properly and giving you the extra "roughage" you need.  I would say that most out there are not taking in enough fiber, so this is a great way to up your intake.

Here is my breakfast:

1/2 cup Organic Wheat Bran (cooked with water)

1 packet Truvia

1/2 Tbs. 100% natural cacao

1 scoop whey protein (peanut butter flavor)

Dunkin' Donuts French Vanilla roast with 1 packet Truvia...delish!

Gets my day started right and kills the chocolate craving!

Keep the comments coming because they fuel the content!  I love to hear what you guys think.  One simple YES could change your life forever..