Jun 29 2012

3 Weeks to Awesome – 10 Minute Abs, Butt and Calves Workout

Today is day 5 of my 3 week program to hit your fitness goal. Today we’re going to fire up your abs, glutes and calves. This is a great workout if you’re a beginner. More advanced exercisers will want to check out one of my more advanced routines. There’s a link to one I recommend below. Firm up those abs! Tighten up your glutes! Show off some well defined calves!

VIDEO: BPM 3 Weeks To a New You – Fitness Program Day 5

VIDEO: BPM 3 Weeks To a New You – Fitness Program Day 5

If you are more advanced, choose another workout from BPM.Tv that really focuses on abs. Try one of the workouts from the Lean, Strong Abdominals section or the Sleek & Sexy: Transformational Stomach Exercises section.

This is one of my favorites: Cake – Abs and Calves Workout

Here’s the most important part of the routine today. During this 3 week program, in addition to the workouts, you also have a super power to develop each day. Todays super power is a tough one. We will be taking 3 days to cover it. Take the time to dig deep with this one. Mentally training yourself is going to be a huge component to your success.

xoxo ~ Cori

Workout Breakdown

	Time: 10 minutes.
	Workout Type: Time challenge.
	Workout Exercises: 4.

Get your gear:

No gear needed. Just your own body and a decision to get it done.

Buy the same nutrition products as me:

	PROTEIN Get your protein here
	SUPER GREENS Get your super greens here
	Peanut Butter Get your PB2 here
	EGG WHITES Get your egg whites here
	Tea Get your tea here

Invoke Your Super Power: Mental Training

We each have coping skills to deal with reality. When we are in the middle of a reality that we are uncomfortable with, we find ways to escape. We deny. We distract. This is how we cope when we’re not strong enough to handle reality for what it is.

Today I I want you to face reality. Accept it. Without judgement or shame. See yourself as you are. Look at the before pictures you took yesterday. Look at the measurements. This is where you are now. There is no point in feeling ashamed. Facing reality is something you can feel proud of. You are taking your first step. You can feel assured that you are moving forward.

Next, I want you to start thinking of the strategies you are going to use when you are confronted with challenges. Imagine the challenges. Imagine the ways you will overcome them. Run through scenarios in your head, but make sure the end is the same in each one. You overcome. You succeed. You struggle, you persevere and you achieve. The whole reason for this is so you mentally train yourself. You are going to be determined and completion driven.

See yourself overcoming every obstacle with any one of a myriad of strategies that you could employ. Brainstorm on all the different ways you could react. Challenging situations will arise. This is your mental training to get through each one, while still achieving your goals.

I want you to read this post I wrote back in September, before I even had this blog site. Life is a Sport. I am in Training.

This was when I first decided to become a figure competitor. Before my breast cancer scare, before my biopsies. After I wrote this, I separated from my husband, moved out into a hotel over the holidays, moved into an apartment, closed 2 businesses that I had built, was told I had breast cancer, had 2 biopsies, found out I had a serious food allergy and had to remove huge food groups from my diet, had my daughter diagnosed with ADHD and a drunk driver hit me, resulting in my current rehab process.

But, I also reconciled with my husband, started this fitness blog to help people get into the best shape of their life from home, learned even more about nutrition due to my food allergies and my daughters ADHD, learned patience, tolerance and acceptance. I also competed in not just one, but three figure competitions, placing 2nd, 1st, and 1st again.

It is not because I’m better. It’s because I don’t give up. I see a challenge and I feel confident that I can hurdle over it. That type of confidence only comes with practice. This is why I want you to invoke your super power of mental training.

This is a BIG one. I want you to continue to focus on this for a full 3 days during this three week program. Starting today.

Follow Through

I like to post something about cardio and nutrition at the end of every post because it is important.

Cardio and nutrition are going to be two of the most important parts of achieving your results, no matter what what your goal is. You can not work off your nutritional decisions with exercise. What? You can’t eat a donut, then just do 2 hours of cardio and *poof* it will be like it never happened? That’s what I’m saying. Come on. No. You can’t.

Your body doesn’t work like a simple addition or subtraction problem. It is not calories in vs. calories out. What you eat has a chemical effect on your body. Even if you do cardio to ‘burn it off’ the chemical effect is still present. Different sugars have an affect. Different proteins have an effect. Different fats have an effect. When you take a vitamin, you understand that it has an effect in your body that cardio will not ‘work off,’ right? Food works the same way. Different foods have positive and negative chemical effects within our body. You can’t just work them off.

You have to unlock and unleash the body fat by working with your body in every aspect. Your body works in harmony like a symphony. When one instrument is off, the entire song doesn’t sound right. A good steady drumbeat can’t make up for a guitar that’s out of tune. 2 hours of cardio cannot make up for a donut. Or pizza. Or macaroni and cheese. Or wine and a baguette. Got it?

Cardio

I recently cut my cardio to a minimum of 30 minutes of stairs with intervals as cardio 5 days per week.

When I’m trying to lose fat I usually do two separate 45 minute cardio sessions a day, but one session is really more like light activity and less like cardio.

I love my cardio and I like to stay conditioned. I personally prefer to do a little more cardio than the average figure competitor, then also eat a little more. It takes more time and effort, but I feel the pay off is well worth it.

The pay off is that I feel awesome. It might take me a little longer to build muscle because I do love my cardio, but it’s the cardio that helps me to keep focused and positive for the long haul. It’s important to know what keeps you motivated for the long haul too. I feel energized by cardio. I love it.

Post Workout Nutrition

When I was trying to gain muscle I finished every workout with a protein shake, animal protein, and some complex and simple carbs. These are healthy choices for gaining or for performance. These are not the right choices for me for trying to lose fat, define and sculpt muscle. Trying to define and sculpt muscle is different from gaining muscle. This means I need to eat something different.

When I am trying to lose fat and sculpt muscle, I am much more strict with my diet. Only true food sources. No protein powder.

I finish up every workout with lean protein from true food sources (a little red meat, white chicken, white fish and egg whites are best) and some dark green veggies or Super Greens mixed with water only. Again, no protein powder. If you are a vegetarian you would most likely need to supplement with protein powder. If you are not, let me say again that true food sources work best for losing body fat.

Even when I am trying to lose fat, I still FEED my body.

Want more information about nutrition? Check out BPM.tv Nutrition 101.

You can also look at my current personal fat loss diet in order to get ideas on how to develop your own nutrition plan.

Cori Ann’s Prepping Fat Loss Diet:

You can click on the image above to link to my fat loss diet to get details about what works for me, but here is the basic breakdown.

This is my meal plan while I am trying to lose fat and define muscle. My carbohydrates come from complex sources only and are kept to about 100 grams per day.

My sugar is kept at about 18 grams per day. That’s it. That is less than what is in one banana. That means fruit is not in my fat loss nutrition plan. My sugars come from minimal amounts that naturally occur in veggies and in the complex carbs I eat each day. No matter what your goal, I highly recommend you watch your sugar intake, even ‘healthy’ sugar like fruit, and moderate it to a minimum based on your own personal goals.

My protein is kept at about 250 grams per day and comes from high quality, organic, free range (or wild) lean animal sources. My fats are kept at about 40 grams per day and come from my protein and complex carbohydrate choices (not additional plant sources like olive oil, coconut, nuts, or avocado).

That equals about 1800 calories per day. I don’t drop it much lower than that.

I eat natural, organic, whole foods that I cook myself, or if possible I eat them raw. I drink 1 to 2 gallons of water and a couple cups of either coffee or tea. There is no mysterious, magical diet. If you want to lose bodyfat you need to eat a fair amount of lean protein and A LOT of green veggies at every meal. Period.

Did you like this post? Tell me in the comments!

Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments. Don’t be shy! Your comments may help to inspire another. Your questions may help someone else who has the exact same question, but is too shy to ask. I love hearing from you!

Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me! Let’s inspire each other.

By Cori Ann Lentz • Workouts • 15 • Tags: Butt, Calves, Lean, Motivation, Sleek & Sexy: Transformational Stomach Exercises, Strong Abdominals, Tighten & Lighten: Top Exercises for Your Glutes, Workout