Apr 13 2012
Sky and Sand – 8 Minute Upper Body Workout
Pack a band in your suitcase and get ready for a great upper body burn. You can easily do this workout while on vacation, in a hotel room, on the beach, while hiking, or during any other adventure you have planned during your vacation.
This workout is only 8 minutes. I use a band, but you can even get a great workout without a band if you visualize the muscle and really squeeze it from within. You don’t need a large space. You just need to make the decision to do this for yourself.
Follow through with proper nutrition. We tend to think of calories expended vs calories ingested and try to balance it out like a simple math problem, but our bodies don’t work that way. There’s chemistry involved with nutrition. There are chemical changes within our cells each time we ingest something, even calorie free foods. It is not just simple addition and subtraction. It is not just calories in and calories out. You can’t balance out nutritional choices with exercise. You need to fuel your body properly through exercise and diet.
If you have set a goal for yourself, it is up to you to make that goal a reality. Enjoy your vacation, but remember that you have set a goal. No matter what your goal is, it is your goal. Stay true to it. The sand is at your feet. The sky is the limit.
xoxo ~ Cori
Sky and Sand – 8 Minute Upper Body Workout
Sky and Sand – 8 Minute Upper Body Workout
SONG: Paul Kalkbrenner – Sky and Sand
SONG: Paul Kalkbrenner – Sky and Sand
Workout Breakdown
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Time: 8 Minutes. |
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Workout Type: Time challenge. |
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Workout Exercises: 4. |
Get your gear:
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BANDS Get your bands here |
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 |
Sky and Sand – 8 Minute Legs Workout
4 exercises. 2 minutes for each exercise. Try not to rest until you are done! Go from one exercise to the next. For beginners, going through the routine just one time a great start. If you want more burn, repeat it! I go through a total of 4 rounds. Beginners, if you are concerned about being able to do the full exercise, simply modify it so you can do it pain free. You can do push ups or planks from your knees. You can drop the band and squeeze just the muscle. Just keep going!
Remember to post your scores! I want to know how you did! Posting your time or how many times you go through the workout right here on this page is a great way to keep track of your workouts so you know when you’re making progress!
Warm Up:
Always warm up with a dynamic warm up and rotator cuff exercises for any upper body work.
Push Ups:
2 minutes
2 minutes can feel like a long time, but try your best to keep going without stopping! Bring your chest ALL THE WAY to the ground. Don’t cheat. No partial range of motion. Go so low your nose just barely kisses the ground. If you have to rest on the ground, that’s fine. Just get down there. Go as long as you can on your toes, then drop it to you knees and keep going.
Single Arm Plank with Single Arm Band Lat Pull:
1 minute right
1 minute left
Hold a plank with just one arm. Try to go from your toes the whole time. If it gets tough, drop it back to your knees. Wrap the band around something like a balcony, tree, post, or hold the band under you hand on the ground. Give yourself enough slack to be able to go for the full minute. It doesn’t have to be extremely hard to pull because you are going for endurance, definition, and conditioning. This is how you get cut.
Keep your torso parallel to the ground. Pull the band down, driving your elbow in and towards your ribs. Squeeze your lat on that same side. Punch the band out in front of you and do it again. Over and over. For the full minute. Switch sides. Do not rest.
Holding the plank for the full 2 minutes is going to be hard. Hold your abs tight and don’t let your back sway.
Don’t rest! If you absolutely have to drop the band and finish out with the arm motion or just the plank, that’s fine. Just keep going and keep holding that plank!
Row with Band:
2 minutes
Stand with your knees slightly bend in a partial squat, abs tight, glutes engaged. Row the band in and squeeze your back. Don’t let your back sway or arch excessively. Keep your abs tight throughout. Breathing out forcefully each time you row helps to keep your core engaged properly.
You may want to try rowing with your wrists and hands towards your ribs for the first minute, then for the second minute try rowing your wrists and hands down toward your hips. Rowing at different angles hits your back differently and builds a beautifully sculpted muscle.
Don’t rest! If you absolutely have to drop the band and finish out with just rowing your arms, that’s fine. Just keep going! You can get a great workout without the band, you just have to visualize and squeeze the muscle from within.
Lateral Raises with Band:
2 minutes
Raise your hands to the side until they are parallel with your shoulders. Do not let your elbows drop down. Try to keep your elbows slightly above your wrists or even with your wrists, not below your wrists. Try not to over arch your back. Keep your abs tight. The focus is on your medial deltoids (the cap of your shoulders). 2 minutes. If you are only going through the routine once, or an odd number of times, you may want to switch your stance each minute so the band is under your other foot.
Don’t rest! If you absolutely have to drop the bands, that’s fine. Just keep going with only your arms!
These are really hard toward the end. Be prepared. Get mentally tough. You can do it. There is no shame if you have to use only your arms.
There it is. Just pack a band in your suitcase and you’re prepared for a great upper body workout while you’re on vacation. You don’t need a large space. You just need to decide to actually do it. You can get a great workout done while you’re on vacation. Want more? Repeat it.
I go through 4 rounds of this workout, then finish out with quite a few other exercises at the gym. It doesn’t come easy for me. I have to put in a lot of work to make it happen. Now it’s your turn. Start with your own personal best and try to improve each week.
Post your scores! Post how many rounds you were able to go through! Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me!
My success comes from working very hard for it. Like I mentioned above, for upper body especially, I supplement my body weight workouts with additional gym workouts since I am preparing for upcoming competitions. So what was my gym workout for chest, back and shoulders?
If you want some extra credit, try this weight workout in the gym too!
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.
May 28, 2012 @ 12:51:20
Add cardio to the mix. This really accelerates fat loss. Should you feel you are out of shape then just go for any half hour walk every day time for a coupe of weeks. Then when you really feel you are ready attempt doing interval training. It’s really effective for burning up the stomach weight and getting washboard abdominals.
May 28, 2012 @ 16:40:57
Thanks Keenan. I actually do 45 minutes (minimum) of cardio at an incline each day… You can check out some of the other posts to see my full routine. I have been holding steady at about 10% body fat… That would be impossible for me without daily cardio. I’m pretty happy with my abs right now. But thank you for commenting!