This is a winner stretch after a long work week to ease you in to the weekend.

this great stretch is a  classic yoga move, the Downward Dog. 

Also:
-  if you want to see more posts about exercises, you can see all in the category by clicking on the link for Exercises under the "Entries by Category" heading in the left column of this blog - it will take you here.
- if you want to see all the video posts I've put up over the months since I started this blog click here.

All the best in health,

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise , Video , Yoga
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OK, this is a tough post, so let's go!
So many of us, including me, jump on a piece of cardio to warm up, check in, and start our workout.  Well, it's a new year and time to mix it a bit!  Not every time, but next time you go to exercise, whether it be in a gym or a hike. Whatever your routine is, start it with 20 minutes of stomach.
OUCH!  That's right, 20 minutes!
Now, most of you know I have some pretty crazy abdominal routines.  This is not the time for that.  These 20 minutes of abs needs to be simple and repetitive.  This is a form of cardio replacement, right?  So that means pick something you can rep out with.

A couple examples for you:
1.  Static Crunches:  Lie flat on the floor with your knees bent.  Cross your arms and touch your opposite shoulders with your finger tips.  Now, with your neck straight, pretend you’re holding a tennis ball under your chin and slowly roll up until your upper back comes off the pad   Try to create an imaginary laser line from your elbow points to the top of your knees, and when you feel your stomach crunch hold for a count of 5 seconds.  Slowly roll back to starting position.

Now take it easy here, it's a warm up!  Some of you can come all the way off the ground and actually touch your elbow points to your knees.  That is incredible, but too much stomach work, too intense. You don't want to exhaust the muscle.  This is the time for reps, so think stamina and not power.  Your power needs to be in your breath and flexion, OK?
Maybe the term squeeze is better than crunch.  Again, the point being is that you are now counting reps; you are breathing, you are checking into your lower back, you are warming up.

Here is an exercise for your lower abs:
2.  Lower Leg Curls:  Still on the floor with your knees still bent.  Put your knuckles under your butt and arms flat,  supporting your tail bone but you’re back is still flat.  Now, slowly walk your feet out in front of you until you’re toes begin to come off the floor and freeze!  You’re feet should still be flat on the floor but just barley, remember you’re legs don't bend, they are frozen.  From there, pull your stomach tight and curl your knees back to you’re chest slowly and repeat.  You’re tail bone should almost come off your hands but barley.  Again, smooth and rhythmic motions; just warming up and cruising, but with purpose.  Slow and squeezing.
Fact: Squeezing moves the blood and heats you up, just like an elevated heart rate does with oxygen.  This is basically an anaerobic and aerobic exercise rolled in one!

After about two minutes of any of these exercises, if you are mindful, squeezing, and breathing, before you know it you’re burning, and better yet sweating! 
You have 18 minutes left, so let’s stay focused. 
A lot of the time you can put out the fire in your abs through your breathing.  Breathe deep and visualize putting out the fire with your breath without checking out from the exercise at hand.  If your back gets tight or you get too windy, take a rest.  Stretch and check in a bit.  Are you going too hard?  Usually, it's a case of stamina so just do what you got to do. 
However, the goal here is 20 minutes of movement.

That's right!!  20 minutes of nonstop stomach.  It's not easy so take it slow!! 
Obviously, experiment with different ab exercises.  There are many out there, and you might have a favorite and favorites are fine, but the point is to change things up.  Time to be shaken up a bit, time to be a little out of your element, so your body changes.  Now again, this is a warm-up and not your ab routine.  So if you have stomach in your plan for training that day, so be it.  Deal with it and go for it.  Just get your mind around it and commit to it, no excuses.  You might feel more connected, actually, because a lot of blood has been brewing in your belly.  Might be the missing link for a great stomach!

Personally, I love the stomach exercise of "Round House Kicks into a Hanging Bag".  It's a great warm-up for my back, hips, knees, and obliques.  Gives me that tight waste that is hard to hold on to, believe me!  Yes, I actually kick for 20 minutes.  Slow, but consistent, and I drop down into stretches along the way.  I feel so open and loose afterward - it's better than a chiropractor for me! 

But again, whatever works for you.  It's these kinds of shifts that not only affect your body, but also your spirit, which I define as energy.  Just try it and tell me what you think.

All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise
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Remember when training your lower body that it is critically important to incorporate and focus on three things:

Cardio, Pace, and Resistance.
Focus on them and you are sure to see results.

Exercise: THE STAIRS: The really is the ultimate butt blaster.

• Cardio: Pick a place where there are a lot of stairs like bleachers at a local high Scholl or college. You want to walk for a minimum of 30 minutes but no more than an hour.
• Pace: Establish a nice easy groove.  Let the intensity naturally increase and it will trust me.
• Resistance: The incline and over all bio mechanics of the body as it relates to stairs creates the resistance.

But you need to be specifically aware of where your power comes from. You need to say to your self  and repeat “ my stair workout mantra “, Which is = “ heal and butt, heal and butt, heal and butt “
Ingrain this in your mind and feel it in your body .You need to come from your butt not your knees.

Also, again this is why pace is key. Go slow and walk almost flat footed like your in mud. Feel the stairs in your butt not your quads. If you do feel it in your quads slow down or even take a break. This is not a rocky workout it’s about slow methodical focused intensity.

This one workout will do it all .You should try to do a stair work out at least three times a week and be sure to stretch after. You should also include my special “figure 8 stretch” into your routine.

Stand feet together then slight bend over so you can grab the out side of each knee with your hands. Now carefully start to do a figure eight motion. Count up to fifty and open up making bigger figure eights as you go. You can also sit down into the exercise as well, just feel it out. The purpose of this is to circulate blood and allow for lateral support to the knees. I actually wear neoprene supports with an open patella to really keep my knees supported and warm.

For diet you should have a scoop of Fat Burning Lemonade  before you train and a scoop of Nutrition Complete Protein Powder within an hour after you train. Also be sure to hydrate and incorporate more Omega Three into your diet. Remember your body needs the Fat Burning Lemonade for fat utilization, the Nutrional Complete (Protein) Powder for recovery, and the Omega Three for fuel. All these together create a fat burning inferno and will give you the tightest, sexiest, yet most natural booty on the block.

Good luck tell me how it goes, the feedback is awesome!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise
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Squeeeeze that butt into shape with a classic exercise with a new twist!  So many articles touch upon the bridge exercise, but never get specific enough.  Including me!  Magazine articles chop up the text, or in the case of my book simply had so much information to cover; we had to keep it basic.  Let’s reintroduce this exercise from both the yoga/ restorative perspective and a body sculpting perspective for you.

BRIDGE
Target:  Butt, lower back, hamstrings.  This also opens the front of your body, and releases heat.  It can also help release pent-up emotions.
How-To:  Lie as pictured, with your feet hip-width apart, your knees bent, and your feet flat.  Your head should be on the floor, with your chin slightly tucked.  Inhale, then exhale as you raise your hips up.  Interlace your fingers under your hips.  Squeeze your shoulder blades together, to release your lower back.

At the top of the rep you want to hold as long as you can without straining your neck or lower back. Keep your butt engaged and breathe. Try to hold for one to two minutes and always keep lifting, tucking and squeezing through your butt, not your neck.

If you feel it in your quads, wiggle your toes and refocus your hold to come from the butt. If you feel it in your neck, relax and wiggle your fingers. After the initial hold, slowly lower your hips back to the floor.

*Beginners: rest @ this point and then repeat 5 times.
*Advance: OK, after your hold you want to slowly count to five on your down motion, and before you touch the floor come right back up in to the top of the rep.  This time only hold for ten seconds, and come back down slowly to the five count once again.  Repeat this cycle 20 times and rest.  Do as many sets as you can.

*Super Advance extras:
1.  Grab a step and place your feet up on it increasing your range of motion.
2.  Use a pilates ring between your thighs.  This increases the resistance and intensity in a big way, engaging your stomach and inside thighs to another level.  Squeeze the ring through the entire range of motion.
3.  Wrap a piece of exercise tubing around your thighs.  This increases the outside of your thighs.  Keep the tubing constantly taught.
4.  At the end of any set, if you have that extra energy in you, pulse and squeeze for as many reps as possible.

At the conclusion, release your body, then your arms, roll to your right, into a fetal position, and take a moment to relax before sitting up.

Final points:
• Stay with your breath.  Use it to help do the work.
• Don’t look sideways.  You might stress your neck.

Success is always in the details.  Really go for it!

All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise
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You liked the “fast” part, right?

As a rule, I’m contemptuous of fast weight loss methods, because they invariably trigger rebound weight gain.  But there’s one way to lose weight quickly without causing a rebound: losing what some doctors now call “false fat”.

False fat is the five to ten extra pounds of water weight, generally accompanied by abdominal bloating from gas, that comes from eating foods that cause food reactions.  False fat isn’t really fat, or adipose tissue, but it looks like fat, feels like fat, and can last forever if you don’t do something about it.
Again, this false fat may be on your body due to a food reaction and you may not even be aware that you are having the reaction.

Most people think of food reactions as allergies, but allergies are just one type of food reaction.  The other, more common type of reaction is a food sensitivity, which is an allergy, but milder.  All forms of food reactions, however, have similar symptoms: water retention, abdominal bloating from gas, food cravings, heartburn and indigestion, facial puffiness, and low energy.  If you frequently have more than one of these symptoms, it’s quite possibly due to food reactions.

Food reactions typically occur when people can’t fully digest what they eat.  For example, the food reaction of lactose intolerance is an inability to fully digest lactose, the sugar in dairy products.  When food molecules can’t be fully digested, the body identifies them as foreign invaders – such as pathogens – and tries to get rid of them, in part by washing them away with extra water.

This inability to fully digest foods is extremely common these days, because:
-We eat too narrow a range of foods.  Most people get about 75% of their total calories from only about 10 of their favorite staples.  Unfortunately, when you overeat any one food, you can exhaust your body’s ability to digest it, by depleting specific digestive enzymes.
-We eat artificial foods that the body doesn’t recognize as foods.
-We eat foods we’re not genetically programmed to eat.  The easiest foods to digest are those your ancestors thrived on.  The hardest to digest are the foods your ancestors rarely ate.  For example, Asians and African Americans have extremely high rates of lactose intolerance, mostly because their ancestors didn’t consume many dairy products.

Spend some time on identifying and addressing such reactions.  Finding and resolving them, if you have them, will go a long way to helping you achieve your fitness goals.

All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise , Improved Appearance
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So I grew up  one of those hard core surfers. In my world you dont long board,  boggie board , wind surf, or kite surf , no no no . I grew up in tight surf packs and if you didn't live in the area you did not surf in the area.

So when this paddle boarding got hot I rebelled of course . But then I thought, " Gosh this would be such a great form of exercise and there are so many days when the surf is flat " ..........

So I gave it a try and man I am hooked !

I can not recommend it enough . First of all the learning curve is nil. The boards are so big you will fall off before the board turns over. I literally do stretches on the thing , so you will have no problems getting the hang of it after a few try's. You can paddle board anywhere from rivers to lakes to the ocean.

You get into a grove and its so peaceful. I use a water proof housing for my ipod and I am rocking and paddling.

I also recomend a heart rate monitor so you can keep  track of your heart rate . Try to go for a 1000 calorie paddle. I will take about a little over an hour and you will work your abs , arms, and butt, as well as seriously burn body fat .

Try it you'll love it , I am converted for sure.
I have a bunch of paddle boards Get a hold of me and let's go !!!

All the best in Health !

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise
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Here is the third exercise in Butt Blaster Series: V-lift.
It is both a stretch and a strength exercise.  Here is how you do it: Stand in a V stance (a V stance: this means stand tall, abs engaged, feet pointed outward, and legs slightly wider then your shoulders so you’re making a giant V) while holding medium resistance dumbbells - try 10 lbs to start.  The dumbbells should be held with your palms facing in, the weights touching the front of your thighs.
Slightly bend your knees, but keep your back straight and shoulders back.  Now, you want to bend over, but bend from the hip keeping your back completely straight.  The dumbbells that are touching your front thighs almost scrape your body, and follow exactly your toe line all the way down to the floor or as far as your able.
Keeping your stomach engaged and your butt lifted, feel your hamstrings stretch all the way out and open up as you stretch towards the floor.  Once you have reached the bottom of the rep pause for a beat, for 5 to 10 seconds, and breathe - but stay tight!
Now, leading with the top of your head; squeeze your butt, squeeze your stomach, and lift the dumbbells back up close to your body.  Remember, back straight, and slowly straighten up to your starting position.  At the top of the rep, softly push the dumbbells into your thigh while lifting your butt, not your heels, and squeeze for 5 seconds.  Repeat the sequence slowly for 15 reps.

Quick recap of key points:

• Use your butt, not your back.
• Go slow and squeeze, never bounce.
• Relax your neck and engage your abs.
• Pace is key!  Minimum 5 seconds down, hold for 5 seconds, 5 seconds up, and finally squeeze for 5 seconds @ the top of the rep.

Interval cardio on these sets, as well, for two minutes; let's go - chop, chop!

So there is the series: after you have done all three of these exercises you should be spent! 
These three exercises and the interval cardio should take at least 45 minutes to complete. If you have any energy left and you really want to challenge yourself do 30 minutes more of medium paced post cardio.  Remember, it's all about the details, your focus, and executing the extras that will separate a good butt from the butt of your dreams.

All the best in health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise
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