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15 Min is All You Need To Look and Feel Amazing!

15 MIN TO FEEL AMAZING | www.4hourbodygirl.com

Busy? 15 Min is All You Need To Look and Feel Amazing! 

Last night’s dinners was a hearty meal of grass-fed steak, broccoli, a green leafy salad, and a half glass of red wine. I posted pics of the food I eat in earlier posts if you’d like to check them out.

15 min to look and feel amazing | https://www.4hourbodygirl.com

I usually have 30grams of protein within 30 min. of waking (this is what Tim Ferriss recommends in the 4-Hour BODY) but every once in a while after a long, good sleep, I’ll only have a piece of fruit.
 
Last night I slept 9 hours. I went for a little walk in the sun for about 10 minutes to get some fresh air and Vitamin D, and to get my neurotransmitters firing, before sitting down to my laptop with a big jug of ice water and a steaming cup of hot matcha green tea, plus as always, my Athletic Greens
 
I have been cutting down my intake of caffeine steadily the last week, with a big cup of green tea being the stand in for coffee this morning. I am not against coffee, ok ok, I love coffee, but at the same time, I am well aware of how much better I start to feel and the impact on my sleep quality when I get my caffeine intake right down every day, and get it in early. I’ll be doing a future post about having more energy without caffeine.
 
One and a half liters of water (a few trips to the bathroom) and two excellent blocks of work later… it was getting close to food time. 
 
I decided to exercise briefly before eating for a host of reasons, but I wanted it to be short, fast, and not too stressful, plus I was running out of time to get the workout in, my lunch in, then continue with my day’s work.

Enter a Minimum Effective Dose Workout

 
2 minutes of foam roller (self myofascial release) with 30 seconds on each of quad/hip flexor, and IT band). Grrrrr this one is so painful sometimes.

Goal: Remove Restrictions, Improve Mobility, Improve Tissue Quality

 

3 minutes of activation/mobility/dynamic warm up

 

Goal: Use some of that improved tissue work to immediately perform a series of activation and mobility exercises to improve movement patterns.

Glute Bridges x 10 with adduction (5 second squeeze at the top) I clamped the foam roller between my knees for the adduction part to save time.

glute-bridge | www.4hourbodygirl.com

Reverse lunges with rotation (arms overhead) x 6 each side – one of the BEST hip flexor

mobilizers on the planet.

reverse-lunges| www.4hourbodygirl.com
 
Hand walks x 6 (also called Inch Worms) out as far as sore shoulder was happy
Inch worm from skinny mom| www.4hourbodygirl.com

Image from skinny mom.com

 
Walking quad stretch x 6 each leg with glute squeeze for 2 seconds 
Best-Quad-Stretches | www.4hourbodygirl.com
 

3 minutes of neural activation and full body warm up

 

Goal: ahhh, neural activation and full body warm up

For this today I skipped rope, 30 seconds flat out, 30 seconds very slow, for 3 “rounds”, totaling 3 minutes. (This is soon hard to do after having kids! I make sure my bladder is empty before doing these! TMI? Sorry….

30 seconds fast I tried to move my feet and the rope as fast as I could. I included shuffles, butt kicks and for the last 5 seconds, & high knees.
 
30 seconds slow, I keep the rope moving at a steady pace, but wasn’t cranking it, the goal is to keep moving and have an active recovery. 

3 minutes (and 19 seconds) of Kettlebell swings 

 

kettlebell-swing  | www.4hourbodygirl.com

 

Goal: The “work” part of the workout – metabolic conditioning and

Hamstring/Glutes Strength Endurance | www.4hourbodygirl.com

100 x two handed swings with a 70lb bell without stopping. 
Why 3 minutes and 19 seconds? Just before I grabbed the bell I hit play on my chosen workout song of the day, which happened to be 2 minutes and 49 seconds, and thought I would cruise to complete this in time…. Almost didn’t make it. 
 
3 minutes of medium paced skipping without stopping

Goal: extend the “work” part of the workout with further metabolic conditioning, while forcing active recovery.

This one was the most elective of all of them, and would be the first to go if I wanted to shorten it further, but I wasn’t happy with my swings performance, so decided to add this in.

1 minute for 100 reps of band “pull aparts” with arms straight and done out in front of chest. 
Start with arms straight out in front of you, gripping your band (they vary greatly in strength/tension) about should width apart with an overhand grip. 
Starting the movement by pulling your shoulder blades together, finish the movement by pulling your arms away from each other. Your arms will end up out to the sides then slightly behind you, the band will hit your chest. That is 1 rep.
 

You can maintain tension on your shoulder blades by never returning the bands all the

way in, or you can go all the way in all the way out, play with it. 

Goal: try and counter the day’s sitting by working some volume in to my upper back, specifically aiming at rear delts and mid trap.

You can mix up the focus of this and add in other muscles by adjusting hand position and arm angle, but assuming you are doing these with your arms straight out in front of you, this is what is going to be getting the bulk of the loading. 

As I am recovering from a shoulder injury, these were done with the little pink band. Since we tend to sit a lot during the day in a shoulders rounded position, this causes what is called stretch-weakness in the scapular retractors (and frequently external rotator) muscles. Add to this that most people have vastly stronger internal rotators of the shoulder than the internal rotators, and we have a need for corrective exercise. (You could also try NEVER SITTING, always walking with good posture and doing three or four pulling reps for your upper back for every one you do for your chest). 

This is a phenomenally useful exercise and I highly recommend you start asap. They can be done throughout the day or at the end of workouts, and intensity can be modified by adjusting your hand position on the band and the band tension.

Great for posture. 

I got my bands at Elite FTS, but you can also get them at amazon.com or any local sporting goods store. 
 
 Do what makes you feel amazing
 
So there you have it! 15 Min is All You Need To Look and Feel Amazing! Do you have 15 min.? Do you have a quick go to 15 min routine? I would love to here about it in the comment below. 
 
Here’s to your health, wealth and happiness!
 
 
 

Originally Published on: Aug 21, 2011 @ 11:04

Easy & Tasty, High Protein Veggie Nuggets | www.4hourbodygirl.com

30 Seconds To Gain More Energy

30 seconds for more energy - girl running on beach | www.4hourbodygirl.com

Are you better than ever? I hope so. Do you have 30 seconds to gain more energy? No, I’m not talking about taking 30 sec. do go grab another coffee. I have a better, and healthier solution for you.

I just heard about a person who just couldn’t manage to burn off their stubborn fat regardless of what she tried.

Did she eat well? Yes.

Exercise often? Yes.

Just what exactly was the issue?

girl running on beach | www.4hourbodygirl.com

Well, she said that she never felt like she had enough energy during the day even to simply get her regular duties done. It seemed like she was always exhausted, and even while she pushed herself to exercise… she just couldn’t “boost herself” inside the gym due to lack of energy.

I’ll explain what she did in a bit, but first i’ll ask you this specifically. Have you ever felt like tired or wish you had more energy? You just felt like your body just didn’t want to move to do your regular routine?

  • Does it ever feel like you’re doing everything you can to lose a tad bit of fat and it doesn’t go anywhere?
  • How awesome would it be, if you could do equal amounts of activity, eat the same amounts of food you normally eat, and show signs of improvement?
  • Furthermore, what if you felt stunning in your body (again)?

If the answer is YES, I urge you to click this link and watch this specific short video my buddy put up. It explains why your power might be so low and also the simple 30 minute solution that does the repair work and provides you back your power.

What happened to the lady that had no energy? She discovered 2 items:

1. Her body wasn’t absorbing all the nutrients she has been getting from all the good food she was eating.

2. She found out that her “health food” had been actually lacking nutrients (and she is able to prove that your own is too! )

These 2 problems together were robbing her from the energy, necessary to burn fat as well as feel great with her body all over again. After doing lots of research, she created a remedy that not just worked for her, but has done wonders for literally 1000s of people around the earth who have been suffering from low energy too.

The best thing? It only will take 30 seconds to gain more energy to help implement her alternative. Click here to discover the short video clip which explains what it is and tips on how to

If it onely takes 30 seconds to gain more energy, why wouldn’t you do it?

Here’s to your health, wealth and happiness!

Easy & Tasty, High Protein Veggie Nuggets | www.4hourbodygirl.com
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