Personal Training

30 Minutes, Now What?

Posted on by Naomi
Hey guys! I hope you are all having a great Wednesday! I first want to thank each and everyone of you who reached out via comments or emails or facebook posts on the Oxygen Magazine featured recipe! I am truly so grateful and also psyched because this recipe is so good! If you are wondering it is posted on my recipe page as well ( I still don’t know how Oxygen got the chicken to look so good!!! I am going to try to make it more appealing to the eye next time I make it!)  

Today is my rest day and I took full advantage. I had a late start to my work day, so I got to sleep in (yeah I mean 8:00am sleep in!) My body really needed the rest and I am so happy to get up without the buzzing of an alarm clock!

Oatmeal. Again. If you’re sick of my breakfasts, sorry but I’m not sorry. I am not sick of it yet! I added a tsp of coconut oil after I snapped the picture, which as some of you know is one of my current ‘loves’
My eco friendly to-go mug! Another one of my ‘loves’
I recently moved, and this is our coffee pot! It is so stinkin’ cute! It is just a 4-cup brewer, and its the smallest little thing I have ever used but it works so well and brews delicious coffee!

After my breakfast, coffee and saved by the bell The Today Show, I did some meal prepping, cleaning in my new place. I took a break to have some delicious seltzer that I picked up from Trader Joes. I have never been a huge fan of seltzer water, for some reason it always made me feel bloated because of the exta bubbles. I really enjoy this kind from Trader Joes. It is raspberry lime flavor and not too intensely bubbly
My valentines day Roses in the background!

Lunch was a one dish wonder (or should I say one tupperware wonder) it seems these days all of my meals are eaten out of tupperware, which I am totally okay with beacuse frankly I love tupperware. I know, its wierd. I’m wierd.  But in all honesty because I prep and take all my meals on teh go in a cooler, I am overloading with plastic!
3 oz chicken breast, sweet potato, baby soinach, celery, red pepper, mushrooms and asparagus with some olive oil and vinegar as the dressing.
I know I tell you all this all of the time but I seriously love each and everyone of my readers. I try to answer your emails, questions as best I can and I also love your ideas and feedback as well! I had a reader contact me telling me all about these 100% essential oils. Annette had a fabulous blog herself entitled Fithealthandslim So go check it out! Annette was so gracious and kind enough to send along some samplesThese oils are used at a number of upscale spas such as the Bellagio, MGM and Four Seasons. They are 100% Certified Pure Therapuetic Grade. These oils come from parts of plants that are carefully extracted using very expensive equipment and strickly controlled temperatures.
The benefits are endless for these oils. They have:
  • Powerful cleansing properties
  • Taken internally and thus cross the cell membrane to target viruses and bacteria
  • Can be used to ease sore muscles, bruises, headaches, ulcers
  • No side effects
  • No allergic reactions


Lemon: Internal cleanser for kidney and livers and to detox. Can also be used around the home on surfaces and a non toxic cleaning booster
Peppermint: Useful to ease breathing and as a digestive aid. And delicious in water!
On Guard: Support healthy immune function. Eliminates and controls pathogens
Deep Blue: Works to ease achy joints and sore muscles

Thank you SO much, Annette!!!
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I have 30 minutes, Now what?

I often get asked what is the best to do when you only have 30 minutes in the gym? Weights or cardio or both? I know we are all busy and sometimes our time in the gym is limited to 30 minutes, which is plenty of time to grab a good workout! My answer to this question of ‘what should I do’ isn’t too clear, because well, there are PLENTY of things one can do in 30 minutes in the gym. There is no right or wrong or ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’

When I am pressed for time there are a number of techniques that I use for workout to make sure I am making the most of my time:

1. Supersets: Supersets are HUGE timesavers in the gym. Supersets are when two different exercises are peformed back to back with little to no rest. You can pair two opposing muscle groups (such as chest and back) or two exercise from the same muscle group (triceps and triceps) You can also superset lower and upper body (quad and back exercises) The idea here is to maximize your time in teh gym, keep your heart rate elevated all while getting the most effective fat burning workout! 

2. Giant (or Monster) sets:  Giant sets are great when your time is short but you want to make sure you hit all of the muscles you want to hit. A giant set is the combination of 3 or more exercises with less than 60 seconds rest in-between. The difference between giant sets and supersets is that when you do a giant set, you do 3 or more exercises in a row ,and when you do supersets, you only combine 2 exercises.  In addition, the rest time between the exercises can be a bit longer when you perform a giant set. You can perform a giant set of anywhere between 3-5 different exercises for 1 body part.

For example, the other day I did a shoulder Giant set:
  • Front raise
  • Lateral Raise
  • DB upright row
  • Arnold Press
  • REST: 60 seconds
3. Total body conditioning: This is something I do when I want to do both cardio and weight training all within 30 minutes. I flip back and forth between some weights and cardio. Yes I am hopping all aroudn teh gym. For instance my total body conditioning workout may look like this
  • 5 min treadmill run (1 min hard, 1 min recover)
  • Shoulder set: Military press, lat raise, front raise
  • 5 min treadmill incline walk (12% incline, 4.0 speed)
  • Leg set: 20 body weight squats, 20 front lunges (each side) 20 back lunges (each side) 20 jump squats
  • 5 min treadmill run (1 min hard, 1 min recover)
  • Back set: Lat pull down, back row, Straight arm pull down
  • Ab set: 1 min plank hold, 30 bicycle crunches (each side) 20 bosu crunches
4. Timed training: I do timed training when I am pressed for time because it makes me really push myself and also makes the workout fly by! I will pick some body parts and perform soem exercises in the time that I alott myself. I will do 3 circuits each consist of 10 minutes long for a total of 30 minutes

Circuit 1
  • min 1: DB walking Lunges
  • min 2: Hamstring Roll ins
  • min 3: Deadlifts
  • min 4: Jump squats
  • min 5: Calf raises
  • REPEAT THIS SEQUENCE 2x for a total of 10 minutes
Circuit 2
  • min 1: Chest fly
  • min 2: Pull ups (assisted if need be)
  • min 3: Push ups
  • min 4: Back row
  • min 5: Plank shoulder taps
  • REPEAT THIS SEQUENCE 2x for a total of 10 minutes
Circuit 3
  • min 1: Plank hold
  • min 2: Reverse crunches
  • min 3: Russian twists
  • min 4: mountain climbers
  • min 5 Side plank (30 sec each side)
  • REPEAT THIS SEQUENCE 2x for a total of 10 minutes
Question of the day: what is your trick when you are pressed for time with your workout?



Naomi
Naomi