Jun 15 2012
Playground – Total Body Workout
Set fire to your abs, torch your legs and totally burn out your arms with this total body workout at the playground.
No need for equipment. No need for a gym. Get your dose of vitamin D by working out outdoors this weekend.
I apologize in advance for the push ups off the swing. Holy moly those are rough. Just suck it up and get them done. Your arms may hate you (and me) while you’re doing them, but they will love you (and me) later.
xoxo ~ Cori
Remember, you have to fuel your body to get the most out of your workouts. Simply working out will not get you to your goal. You must workout and eat CLEAN. I don’t just mean kind of clean. I don’t just mean 80% clean. I don’t just mean clean Monday through Friday afternoon. I don’t just mean clean except for that glass of wine or that skinny margarita. I mean CLEAN.
So, what exactly does eating CLEAN mean? What should you be eating? Well, each body is unique. There is no easy answer to that one. There is no diet that is going to work the same for everybody. Remember that you are the expert when it comes to your own body. Trust your own judgement, but you can check out my own personal diet plan and get inspired to start experimenting with your own diet.
Everything you need to know to begin making the right changes in your life is here at BPM.Tv and it’s all FREE. The information is here. Now it’s up to you to apply it to your own life and work for it.
Get to it!
xoxo ~ Cori
VIDEO: Playground – Total Body Workout
VIDEO: Playground – Total Body Workout
SONG: DJ ASSAD featuring Willy William & BIG ALI – Playground
SONG: DJ ASSAD featuring Willy William & BIG ALI – Playground
Workout Breakdown
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Time: Personal best! As long as it takes. |
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Workout Type: Rep challenge. |
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Workout Exercises: 5. |
Get your gear:
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No gear needed. Just your own body and a decision to get it done. |
Buy the same nutrition products as me:
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PROTEIN Get your protein here |
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SUPER GREENS Get your super greens here |
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Peanut Butter Get your PB2 here |
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EGG WHITES Get your egg whites here |
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Tea Get your tea here |
Playground – Total Body Workout
Go to a playground nearby that has a swing to take this workout outdoors. Don’t want to workout outside? You could do this same workout at the gym or at home with a TRX, set of rings or even a strong exercise band. The swings at the playground don’t cost a thing though, I’m just saying. NO EXCUSES.
To get the most out of this workout, get through all 4 sets of each exercise before you move on to the next, but don’t rest longer than 30 seconds between each set! If you’re new to exercise and doing 4 sets seems like it’s too much, you can always start with just one set and move forward from there. We all start at the beginning. There’s no shame in that.
Remember to post your scores! POST YOUR TIME AND HOW MANY REPS YOU GOT THROUGH IN EACH SET! Keep track of your workouts so you know when you’re making progress!
Just remember that no matter how hard you workout, it is your nutrition that will ultimately get you to your goal.
Warm Up:
Always warm up with a dynamic warm up before working out. Not sure what that means? Look at this upper body warm up workout: Stable Shoulders – 10 Minutes for Less Headaches, Less Backaches and Better Posture
Swing Push Up (Modified with Both Hands on One Swing):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
These are a lot harder than regular push ups. You are stabilizing yourself as the swing moves underneath you. What’s so different from a regular push up?
- Your abs and lats prevent the swing from moving forward.
- Your pecs, upper back, rear delts and front delts prevent the swing from moving to either side.
- Your medial biceps, delts and traps prevent the swing from moving backwards, towards your feet.
You’re working more muscles all at once so you’re not going to be able to do as many as you can do on the ground. If you can’t quite make it to 10 with proper form, take a few steps forward so you’re at a higher angle and keep going. To make it harder, take a few steps backward or elevate your feet. Get through all 4 sets, or as many as you can, before moving on to the next exercise. Don’t rest longer than 30 seconds between each set! You’re abs are strong! They can take it!
V-Sit (Modified on a Swing):
20 – 20 – 20 – 20
Keep your abs tight and squeeze it all in. Keep your chest up as you bring your knees in. Keep your back long and tall. If you can do more than 20, do it! Don’t hold back or stop at 20 just because that’s the number I put here. When you run a race, don’t aim for the finish line. Blow right through it. Get through all 4 sets, or as many as you can, before moving on to the next exercise. Don’t rest longer than 30 seconds between each set! Keep your fire burning!
V-Sit (Legs Straight and Modified on a Swing):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
If you feel it in your hips more than your abs, just do more sets with your knees bent until your abs get stronger. You might also want to work on your hip flexor flexibility and strength. Keep your chest up. Keep your back long and tall. The swing adds instability and allows you to increase your range of motion so it may seem just a little harder than when you do them on the ground. Get through all 4 sets, or as many as you can, before moving on to the next exercise. Don’t rest longer than 30 seconds between each set! If you can do all 40 without stopping, and with proper form, go for it!
Bulgarian Split Squats (Modified on a Swing):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 right leg lead
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 left leg lead
Push through your front heel. Drop it as far as your body will allow. Allow your back leg to extend slightly, pushing the swing away from you. Hold your balance. Keep your knee aligned over your ankle. To make it harder, add a sandbag. If you are using a sandbag, hold it on the same side that is pushing your heel into the ground. Do 10 on your right. Switch legs and do 10 on your left. Don’t rest at all. The time it takes to switch legs is your rest time. Just get right back into it.
Inverted Rows (Modified on a Swing):
20 – 20 – 20 – 20
You need two swings that are close together for this one. Grab a separate swing in each hand. If you try to use just one swing, the seat will get in the way and you won’t be able to row up as high as you need to in order to fully activate the muscle.
Straighten your body and row yourself up. Squeeze your shoulders back and really focus on your traps and your lats. Keep your chest way up and don’t let your hips drop. If this seems too hard, try bending your knees. As you get stronger, straighten out your legs. As you get even stronger, elevate your feet. Get through all 4 sets, or as many as you can, then you’re done!
TRX, Rings, Bars and Swings
TRX and ring workouts are cool, but the equipment can be expensive. Even if you belong to a gym, your gym may not have any available. You may not have a place to set up your own rings or TRX in your home. I know I don’t. Here are some other options:
- Playground. A pair of swings can work just like a pair of rings. A swing can work just like a TRX. Remember when you were a kid and you swung across the monkey bars with ease, pulled yourself up to climb to the top of the slide, and just had fun? Playgrounds are awesome. Go early in the morning or later in the evening so you’re not competing for space with the community kidlets.
- A strong band. A strong band (or thick strap) can act almost the same way that a TRX or pair of rings can. Find a place to hang it, make sure it’s strong enough to support your weight and go for it.
- Get a dip bar with rings for your house. The last, and most convenient option, is to buy a dip bar that has some cool attachments. If you don’t have the space to hang a TRX or pair of rings from the ceiling in your home, this dip bar is a great option. You can also use the dip bar for assisted pull ups and rows. When the dip bar and rings are right in your house, you really have no excuses. Each time you walk by them you can try to get a few exercises in.
There it is. Give your total body an awesome workout at the park! Just remember that it is ultimately your nutrition that will make or break your goal, no matter how hard you workout.
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 do a minimum of 45 minutes of stairs with intervals as cardio each and every day. When I’m trying to lose fat I usually do two separate 45 minute cardio sessions a day. Even while I have been recuperating from the car crash, I have still been able to do at least one session of my daily 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. 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 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.
Jun 16, 2012 @ 04:32:58
The workout looks great! Are 4 rounds of 1 exercise supposed to be completed before moving to the next exercise OR is this workout supposed to be done like interval training (i.e. complete 1 set of an exercise, then move onto the next first set of an exercise and so on until 4 rounds have been completed)? I hope that makes sense
Jun 16, 2012 @ 06:29:48
Great question! To get the most out of this workout, do all 4 sets of each exercise before moving on to the next, but with minimal rest. I will make sure to update the workout breakdown to make it more clear.
Jun 16, 2012 @ 06:43:39
Okay, thanks Cori Ann!