May 24 2012
Wide Awake – Awaken Your Awesome Arms and Abs Workout
Ready to awaken your awesome arms? Ready to fire up your abs? Let’s do this!
This is a workout you can do with just your own body weight that will set your chest, triceps, and abs on fire!
This workout is quick and dirty. It is going to be hard, I won’t lie. Even so, it is also great for beginners because you can modify everything. I’m sorry in advance for the diamond pushups. Yowzers! Those will definitely wake you up. Yes, they’re hard. The trick is to never give up and just keep going.
I want you to make it hard on yourself. Go down all the way to the ground with each and every push up. Don’t cheat yourself! If that means you have to rest on the ground for a second, that’s fine. Just get all the way down there.
The full workout breakdown is below and includes how many reps, sets, and gives some of my tips on form. All you need is 2 frisbees (or a few rags sprayed with pledge if you are doing this on a hard floor instead of carpet).
Go for your own personal best. Remember to post your scores below! I want to know how you did! Awaken your awesomeness! Let’s do this!
xoxo ~ Cori
Wide Awake – Awaken Your Awesome Arms and Abs Workout
Wide Awake – Awaken Your Awesome Arms Workout
SONG: Katy Perry – Wide Awake
Workout Breakdown
|
Time: As long as it take to achieve awesomeness. |
|
Workout Type: Rep challenge. |
|
Workout Exercises: 3. |
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 |
Wide Awake – Awaken Your Awesome Arms and Abs Workout
You will need 2 frisbees (or towels if you are on hard floor). You can also take this workout outside to a park or to the gym. Frisbees will work on grass just like they do on carpet.
1 warm up exercise. 2 upper body exercises. 2 abdominal exercises. The reps and sets are below. Don’t do a circuit. Do 4 sets of each exercise before moving on and keep the exercises in order to get the most out of it. If you are a beginner, start with just 1 or 2 sets and try to do a little more each week.
Remember to post your scores! I’m letting you know how long it took me to get through the workout. POST YOUR TIME! POST HOW MANY SETS YOU GO THROUGH! Keep track of your workouts so you know when you’re making progress!
Rotator Cuff Warm Up:
External Rotation 25 x 4 (2 each shoulder)
Slider Push Ups
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 right
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 left (alternating right to left each time)
Use the frisbees (or towels) to slide your hand to one side as you lower your body for each push up. Alternate sides, doing 10 on each side for each set. To make it easier drop to your knees. To make it harder elevate your feet.
Diamond Push Ups:
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
Hands together in a diamond pattern. Keep your elbows in towards your rib cage. Drop to your knees when it gets tough. Feeling strong? Elevate your feet. Bring your chest all the way down each time. No partial movements on this one! Try not to rest more than 10 to 15 seconds between each set. If you’re advanced, you’re welcome to do more than 10 in each set.
Single Leg Climbs:
20 – 20 – 20 – 20 right
20 – 20 – 20 – 20 left
You have one leg bent and firmly planted into the ground the whole time. Keep your knees together. Don’t let your leg drop or come up too high. Simply climb your leg and try to tap your toe and the top. You allow your leg to assist you up. Really squeeze your abs tight, drawing them in.
Single Toe Touch V-Sit:
20 – 20 – 20 – 20 right
20 – 20 – 20 – 20 left
If you are just starting out, try to do more sets of the leg climb instead because these are advanced. Are you advanced? Then let’s do this! You still have one leg bent and firmly planted into the ground the whole time, just like the leg climbs. Keep your knees together just like the leg climbs. The difference is that you are lifting your torso without climbing your leg. Reach for your toe at the top, but keep your back long. Hold your abs tight and draw them in the entire time. Make sure you are squeezing and pulling yourself up with your abs, not straining your back or hip flexors.
You don’t need equipment. You just need your own body, a couple of frisbees and the ground. Make a decision to do it. Arms don’t come easy. Abs don’t come easy. It’s the hard work and the feeling of accomplishment that makes you feel proud of yourself. It is that feeling that makes you awesome.
Reach your goal. I have to put in the work to make it happen. So do you. My work here is done, now it’s your turn.
Post your time! Post how many sets you got through! Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me!
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.
