Pilates

One Hour June Plank

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June!

So long May, you were fun while you lasted!

May was a good month, as usual (traditionally my favorite of the year), FULL of birthdays (my own included) and backyard parties and peppered with a bit of dancing and traveling.

Now I’m trying to wrap my head around June.

It’s been a good month so far, all ~30 hours of it.

Yesterday was a quintessential Sunday; outdoor brunch, a kickball game to celebrate a friend’s 40th, a bbq, some gardening and lounging.  This morning started with a great hike before coming into the office.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my fitness needs and goals lately.  I feel like I have a little bit of a gap since the semester ended and I now teach 3 less classes a week.

Two things I’ve decided are that I want a little structure.  But only a little.

Time to bring back the One Hour Plank Challenge!

I’ll be doing five minutes of plank, broken up into bite-sized increments, three times a week through the month of June. My plan is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but I have a little room to play with the schedule if I need to.

I will mostly be following the variations I did for the February challenge but I might add in some new favorites as well. All the videos from the first month can be found here and I plan to add them all to my YouTube channel over the next month as well.

Join me!

“One Hour” is kind of arbitrary, I like the roundness of it, the way it breaks down into 12 days of 5 minutes, and it’s about the right level of challenge for me; attainable but not easy.  If it’s not the right goal for you though, set your own!  Cut it in half for two and a half minutes a day, aim to plank 10 times over the next month, or shoot for one minute three times a week.  Choose your own workout adventure!

Things to consider in setting your own plank challenge:

  • All styles of planks are intense on the shoulders, which makes them awesome.  However, I do not recommend planking on consecutive days.  Rest those muscles!

 

  • Along the same lines, if you have weak, injured, or sensitive shoulders or a low back plank with extreme caution.  Listen very closely to these areas and DO NOT PUSH IT.  It’s not worth it.

 

  • Practice ridiculously perfect form.  Try to plank in front of a mirror regularly or with a friend that can give you feedback.  If your form starts to fail you, you have had enough.  Listen to your body over the clock or the instructor to know when it’s time to rest.

 

  • This is a little redundant but set attainable yet challenging goals.  Set yourself up for success! Why the hell not, it’s just an exercise.

Alright, gotta hit the floor. Connect and please feel free to ask me any questions you have about form, variations, or staying on-task.

Grokker Rocks

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I have written many times before about my fondness for exercise videos.  Ever since I started “working out” about 16 years ago videos have provided me with motivation, inspiration, and education.  As a personal trainer and fitness instructor I sometimes feel like I should be able to always work out on my own but really the opposite is true; it’s doubly important that I continue to be a student to stay fresh and interested in my profession and videos are such a great resource for this.

A few days ago I got an email asking if I’d be interested in checking out a new video site, Grokker, and sharing what I found with all you lovely people.  It was perfect timing; I am on the West coast for a week and a half celebrating my little sister’s graduation from grad school (she’s a Physical Therapist! So proud, she’s going to be amazing in the field.), reconnecting with my second (3rd?, 4th?) home, the amazing city of Portland, and visiting friends.  Although I am really good at getting moving most days even when on vacation I sometimes have a little bit of difficulty carving out the time to do yoga and having a video to follow can really help me get on the proverbial mat (which has actually been a sidewalk and a hard wood floor so far this week).

After cruising around the site for a while this morning and doing one of the yoga videos I am happy to report that this site is awesome!


Grokker.com

There are hundreds of videos made by food and fitness experts under the topics of yoga, fitness, and cooking with dozens of subcategories under each topic and new videos added daily.

So far I’ve done a “Simple Morning Flow” yoga sequence (about 15 minutes) and checked out a few of the Pilates videos and cooking demos.  The yoga and Pilates were simple and straight forward in the videography and clear and professional in the instruction, just the way I like an exercise video to be. 

Grokker.com

They even have some Barre workouts! (I secretly really want to make some videos for this site now…or maybe not so secretly… 😉  )

The cooking videos are the thing that really sets Grokker apart from other sites I’ve seen.  Each recipe has a pretty thumbnail to pique your interest, a beautifully shot video that takes you through each step, and written details, like a cookbook, about the time required and equipment needed to make each dish.  I’m excited to get back in my kitchen and start cooking, especially something from the section on Indian food.


Grokker.com

While on vacation I’ve been using Grokker on my phone and it’s worked fine but I believe there’s a whole world to explore with the forums, blog section, and Q&A that I will check out when I return to my laptop.

Grokker is a new company and at this point does not charge for membership, you merely have to create an account (the basic “name and email” stuff) to gain access to all the videos.  I found that Grokker fit all three of my criteria for a great site; super easy to navigate, full of high quality content, and NOT cheesey at all.  Here’s a little video promo to see more of what they have to offer. I definitely recommend checking it out and am looking forward to adding it to my toolbox when I need some motivation, inspiration, and education for yoga, fitness, or cooking.

This sponsorship is brought to you by Grokker.com whom we are partnered with for this promotion.