Vesna of Fit Missy sent me a new video to share with you all! She says:
“The outer thigh and butt (abductors) are one of those trouble areas most women always ask about. Here is an exercise that will isolate that area and help shape the glute. If you are a runner, this is a great exercise for you as weak abductors tend to lead to common running injuries.”
Hear that, runners?! These exercises will help prevent injuries!
So! Did we all survive Thanksgiving? Is it even worth repeating all the post-Thanksgiving cliches? (“I survived… Plus a couple pounds!” “Ugh, I ate more pumpkin pie than I should have,” “I must have gained 10 POUNDS this week!”).
Alright, alright. Let’s skip the Thanksgiving weight cliches and skip right to the part where we all get back on track — eating lots of whole foods, minimizing the sugar/processed carbs, and focusing on getting plenty of protein and healthy fat. Deal? Deal.
With just a week left of the Fit Yo Pants Challenge, I admit I’ve done a pretty bad job of providing inspirational workouts and recipes for you guys. I hope you’ve been focusing on fitting yo pants for the past month or so! Just a week or so left until I’ll be asking for your after pics. 
To help you out this last week, here’s a toughie-but-goodie workout that will make you forget all about those silly Thanksgiving weight gain cliches. Oh, and it snowed for the first time here! Which means it’s too cold for me to work out outside. Luckily, you can do this one in the comfort of your own warm living room(but do enjoy the pretty winter-inspired background of the workout!).
In the hopes of helping you Fit Yo Pants (hope everyone is doing well with that!), I bring you an AWESOME giveaway, care of our friends at Fit Missy!
When my girl Vesna emailed me about a new workout program she developed called Fit Missy, I was pretty excited. She’s been creating workouts and sharing them with Your Healthista readers for several years now under the Trainerpack name, and she really knows her stuff.
Vesna describes Fit Missy as a p90x-style program designed just for women. Here’s what you get with the Fit Missy program:
Fit Missy is partnering with Your Healthista for a pretty amazing giveaway. Here’s the scoop:
Got it? Good. Even better: you can try one of the Fit Missy workouts right now to get a taste of what the program is like!
Last week, I asked you to commit to moving your body for 20-45 minutes, four times a week. I don’t care what you do, you just have to move! But if you need some inspiration for that movement, I’m here for you. This is a workout you can do with a friend, so you should have some extra motivation/encouragement! You also won’t need any extra equipment for this workout, so you have no excuse not to try it out.
The Fit Yo Pants Friend Workout
Here’s how it works: You’ll do each of the below movements for a total of five minutes (set a timer on your phone or use a stopwatch). You can break up the five minutes however you want with your friend. You can switch off every minute or every certain number of reps (10 or 20). See what works best! Just make sure you’re working for about the same amount of time as each other. Make sure to cheer each other on and don’t let each other give up! When you’re done, you’ll have worked out for about 20 minutes each, but I bet it won’t feel like that long.
The moves:
5 minutes of mountain climbers
5 minutes of pushups
5 minutes of squats
5 minutes of burpees
5 minutes of situps
5 minutes of lunges (make sure to work evenly on both sides)
5 minutes of running quickly (not quite a sprint). If you don’t have somewhere to run, do jumping jacks instead.
5 minutes of plank
If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Okay, this is a post where I sing the praises of tabata.
What is tabata?
In a nutshell, it’s high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Tabata specifically calls for 20 seconds of explosive effort followed by 10 seconds of rest for eight cycles (four minutes).
Why tabata?
Studies have shown that it burns fat more effectively, lowers insulin resistance, and improves glucose tolerance (if that sounds like NBD to you, read this book).
It’s also over in a heartbeat! Although I promise, it will feel like forever.
You’ll feel like you got an amazing workout, yet only four minutes have passed! But you will get an amazing workout if you do tabata correctly. In those four minutes, you can actually make more fitness gains than running for an hour on the treadmill.
What kind of exercises can I do tabata-style?
Almost any! At CrossFit the other night, we did tabata squats, tabata flutter kicks, tabata sprints, and tabata planks. You can pick almost any exercise and turn it into a high-intensity tabata workout.
Things to keep in mind:
Here’s a good tabata workout* from tabatatraining.org you can try to get you started:
*For more advanced exercisers, do each of these exercises for 8 cycles (a total of 16 minutes).
I’m sure tabata isn’t new to most of you, but if you actually do it correctly and regularly, you’ll feel the difference in your fitness pretty quickly!
Real food, fitness, and health advice for real people who love food and don't want to spend hours in the gym.
Email questions, comments, or suggestions to leah@yourhealthista.com.
