Exercise Review: The Bar Method Beginner's Workout *NEW*

I have been a fan of the Bar Method for years due to its simple and effective techniques in shaping the body. If you're new to Bar, you'll probably do your first video or class and think that such simple moves couldn't possibly make you sore. But give it 12 hours...your muscles will be screaming!

I recently ordered the NEW Bar Method Beginner's Workout in anticipation for the new collection of DVDs that have been released. This specific one is led by master instructor, Joey Decker, who owns his own Bar Method studio in Burbank. You'll find Joey's teaching direct and to the point...ready to get the job done but at the same time caring and precise. He does a great job of explaining the position of the body in each move and helps even the  most advanced Bar student work on their technique...which is the most important part of Bar. 

The DVD starts out with a warm up of leg lifts and quickly moves to arms. You'll need a set of light weights (2-5lbs). For those of you who think you need more weight because you're super strong...be careful. These arm workouts are loaded with challenges regardless of the weight you hold. I'd recommend starting with 5 lbs or less. On her blog, Burr recommends using 4 lbs or less when doing tricep moves to make sure you have the right form. You can go through the whole exercise but get little results if your form is off. Don't waste your time with bad form!

Legs follow your set of arms and you can really feel the burn! Oh, my aching legs! Joey really targets your thighs (which are your biggest calories burners) and you'll most likely shake while holding each position, especially if you're new to the workout. But don't worry! Shaking is good! Really good! They love shakers at the bar!

After legs....bum! If you listen to Joey's clear instruction, you'll really target your bottom. You can do some great damage to that seat of yours if you're willing to concentrate and keep with the moves. It will melt off...I mean it!

After seat work is stomach and back dancing. Stomach work is interesting...you can really feel the burn and most of it is actually done by laying with your lower back on the ground and resting your elbows. You'd think this was the easy part but you'll quickly find out how hard it is to tuck and curl while holding this position. Its as if you're "tucking" your stomach back into the way it used to be or you would like it to be! 

Back dancing....the best! Focus on keeping your upper and middle back to the ground. When you raise your lower back, your seat and back of your thighs will engage as you tuck at different speeds. This position really targets your seat and helps stretch out your back. Every time I've finished it this week, my back has cracked back into place when I lowered my body to the floor...bliss! 

Word of advice: Do NOT skip the stretching. You'll find stretches throughout the DVD and they are there for a reason. Your body needs them to recover from the intense work you just did! And you will be SO SORE afterwards if you don't do them. You'll probably be sore anyways but you'll find a whole new level of soreness if you don't complete the entire workout and include the stretches. Stretching completes the exercise...if you haven't stretched, you're not done.

After 37 minutes, you'll really feel the effects of this workout. Though its shorter than some workout videos, it gets to the point quickly and helps prepare you to move on to the more advanced Bar work DVDs. But make sure you don't skip over this video (even if you're a seasoned Bar). Like martial arts, its building on the foundation that helps you succeed. The basics of this workout are what helps you move to the more advanced positions but the advanced positions require a reminder of the basic fundamentals as well! 

Grade: A
Level: all levels...give it a try

Time: 37 minutes

Recommended times a week: 3+

Sore factor: oh, my legs!

Instruction: just right

if you're pregnant: go for it as long as you have your doctor's permission. But be careful with the stomach moves and back dancing. Do NOT lie flat on your back. Lay at an angle on pillows and only do what feels right. Use your legs as support and put them on the floor if needed. Better yet, the Bar Method has a DVD specifically for pregnancy...I'd highly recommend that one before trying to do this one. If you really want to keep at it with all the Bar DVDs, visit a studio and take either the pregnancy class or at least a private session so you can learn the correct form to protect your baby!

After pregnancy: works wonders! Just don't start it till your doctor gives you the go ahead. It's especially wonderful for when baby goes down for those short naps!

To order visit www.barmethod.com

Diet and Exercise before, during, and after pregnancy

I know I know! You don't want to hear about dieting and exercising...but it is soooo critically important to preparing your body for childbirth or recovering from it.

Our bodies are machines designed to help us with all kinds of physical and mental activities and when they aren't in good shape, our performance suffers. Think of a ferrari...They require tons of maintenance and good, quality fuel to run at tip top shape. Would you put in low grade fuel into that ferrari to run through the engine when you know cleaner fuel would optimize its performance? Or would you miss oil changes if you knew that it would cause damage to the car?

Diet and exercise are the key to making sure our bodies run at optimal performance and speed. No, you don't have to go overboard and never indulge. Just think moderation: for both exercise and diet. Don't get crazy...just find a lifestyle that works best for you. Do you want chocolate? Have chocolate...but have more veggies and fruit while you're at it, too. They're good for you and they tell your body to perform better.

Let's breakdown diet and exercise depending on where you are in life

Before pregnancy:
This is your time to shine! Your body is a newbie...ready to conquer the world and poised for a challenge. Like an athlete training for their first Olympic meet, you must train your body by teaching it good habits.
It is recommended that we get at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day. Now, that says at least. But that doesn't mean you have to run a mile every single day. You can get your physical activity with a brisk walk, cleaning the house, playing with your children, making dinner. It all adds up.
Now, if you want a more fine tuned body that trains for true optimal performance, try and get that small physical activity in once per day and also focus on an exercise regimen of at least 3 days per week. In the coming posts, I'll be reviewing some of my favorite workouts you can do from your own home.

And don't feed the effort with a candy bar afterwards. Your body responds to what you eat following your workout and uses that to repair your muscles and build on your foundation. Now, do you want that Milky Way bar to be the next layer you add? Yes, you can have the Milky Way bar, but wait a little and have some protein instead. Filling your body with good foods helps deter our desire for sugary foods.
If you are looking to conceive, start taking prenantal vitmans...they help prepare your body and replensih it with the vitamins you need to host that baby in your belly :)

During pregnancy:
Now's your chance...get it in while you can! Yes, you might be tired and exhausted...but if you get the okay from your doctor, do exercise in moderation whenever you can. Make sure you listen to your body, though. There are going to be good days and bad days and you need to protect that little one that's growing inside of you! But don't expect that you can just start a good regimen after pregnancy...that little one is going to take up soooo much of your time and you need to have a head start!
Your muscles are kind of like a memory foam pillow...pregnancy pushes and stretches them for 10 months but afterwards, you can help train your muscles to bounce back to the way they used to hold. It takes time but the more effort you put in now, the better.
Not to mention, the labor benefits. Preparing your muscles will help you get through one of the most intense workouts of your life: LABOR. It is a grueling, challenging, most likely painful experience...but you can train for it now! And it is so worth it in the end when you see that precious baby.

Some rules for exercising during pregnancy:
-be careful during the first trimester...most miscarriages happen during this time and your body is going through a ton of changes. Make sure you talk to your doctor and listen to your body.
-be cautious NOT to overheat...it's not good for you or the baby at anytime during the pregnancy
-Don't lay flat on your back. If the exercise calls for stomach curls, proceed with caution and use a pillow  to lean on so you are at an angle. Laying flat on your back can put too much pressure on the fetus and block blood flow to your baby.
-Opt for low impact workouts...I have some great review coming up of one of my favs: The Bar Method!

Make sure to take in 300 more calories during pregnancy than before you were pregnant. Your body is working hard and you need more fuel to get through the day. Opt for fruits, veggies, calcium, iron, protein, carbs...all those good things. You need them and your baby needs them. Take a prenatal vitamin, too...That baby is going to be soaking up your nutrients!

Post-pregnancy:

Congratulations! What a crazy experience, huh?! And look at that little bundle of joy! (If you can keep your eyes open!)
Your body is going to need a lot of recovery time to get through post delivery. You will most likely be very sore and need time to rest...follow the nurse and doctors' orders and make sure you really listen to your body. Your post pregnancy checkups with your OBGYN will help you figure out when you should be able to start exercising again...but don't just jump back into it! Your muscles are recovering and know what to do without you going in there and trying to control things! If you move to fast, you can actually cause damage to your muscles and risk getting a bulging stomach because you didn't let them set correctly.
If you're nursing, your uterus will contract as the baby feeds which helps it shrink back to a normal size. The nurses will most likely tell you to press down on your stomach to feel your uterus and make sure it is tightening...massaging it will help encourage its recovery.

Things to expect:
-You are going to be tired from labor for weeks...maybe months. You will be sore...take it easy.
-You have a little one that will probably be up almost every hour or two around the clock. Your body is going to be exhausted so not exercising for a couple months is fine! When your doctor gives you the okay, you can go on walks but build up to where you were before you had the baby
-Make sure you take in enough nutrients and continue with your prenatal vitamin. If you're breastfeeding, take in at least 500 extra calories cause that baby needs milk and your body needs the extra nutrients to make it
-Drink TONS of water...this helps with the milk. And we all know water is good for you no matter what stage of life you're in. It's a cleansing liquid that runs through your body and gives it a "shower"

In the coming posts, I'll have some reviews of some of my favorite exercise videos you can do at home...you'll love the convenience...especially when you're stuck at home all the time!

Stick with it...after pregnancy, it takes time for your body to heal. Give it the time it needs and make sure you don't beat yourself up over getting back in shape. It most likely will not "bounce" back...and that's okay! That's natural! You'll learn to appreciate your body in a whole new way when you see that wonderful child everyday!

When to let the world know...

So you find out you're pregnant and immediately start making a mental list of who you want to tell. Maybe you are one of those people that runs from the bathroom with your positive pee stick straight to the computer to blast the news on facebook, myspace, and twitter...If you are, that's fine...just wash your hands first.

However, you  might be reluctant to share the news so soon. Some women like to wait a few months to make sure everything is okay with the pregnancy. Miscarriages happen most commonly in the first trimester so waiting to make sure all is well isn't such a bad idea. 

Let's do a little breakdown so you know how long you'll be preggers:

From conception, pregnancy is 10  months...But what about the 9 months you were told??? Yeah, another lie...

Do the math...10 solid months if you make it to full term...or you might go longer. 

There are three stages of pregnancy called "trimesters" that help us figure out where we are:

1st trimester: 1-12 weeks

2nd trimester: 13-28 weeks

3rd trimester: 29-to the end

Some of these weeks vary depending on the source you look up but there are definitely three solid parts to pregnancy and are great indicators of the milestones you'll be making. 

My personal preference was to wait until my second trimester to tell people that I was pregnant. For one, I didn't find out until I was 6 weeks pregnant and then you don't usually see the heartbeat clearly on the ultrasound until a little later than that. I found that it was more enjoyable to not have to answer everyone's questions and just take the time to breathe (or sleep and puke) in those first weeks. Everyone has an opinion about what you should do and what the names should be and what you're having and yada yada yada. It's nice to postpone that for awhile. 

Whatever you decide, take some time to really understand that there is a life inside of you! Whether it ends in miscarriage or there are complications involve...it's a beautiful, wonderful human being that is growing inside of your body!

Pregnant? Where to go from first positive...

Congratulations! You're pregnant! Can we just take a moment and totally bask in the miracle of life??? How incredible is it that a little human being is cuddled up inside of you?


Everyone is different with each pregnancy. Some women have fantastic pregnancies where they keep this wonderful shape of a body with a little basketball sized belly. They go about their day like it's no big deal and gush about how much they LOVE pregnancy eating whatever they want and frolicking in the fields with no worries.
But let's talk about the stuff you don't hear much about and wonder how you missed it all those years you dreamt of what motherhood would be like...yeah, that thing called reality.
Pregnancy is fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it's messy, hard, confusing, stressful, challenging...you get the picture. Don't get discouraged. God does this incredible thing with your mind after having a baby in which He seems to almost erase the bad parts of pregnancy and labor. You forget how much pain is involved and move on to thinking about how cute the next baby could be...
Don't freak out. Just breathe and realize you CAN do this. Let's talk about some of the basics


1. MORNING SICKNESS: 
So misunderstood. It's not morning...it's all of the time. And if you're one of those people who doesn't get sick...count yourself stinkin' blessed. But remember every pregnancy (not just person) is different. Morning sickness is anytime of day and can come at any moment. You can feel fine for a little while, see a sandwich or just hear about one and want to barf all over your new maternity clothes that you just had to buy but don't actually need yet. Or mabye you're the person, like myself...throwing up all the time with nothing in the stomach left to even consider as food. You feel like you're on a roller coaster from H-E-double hockey sticks and can't get off for a long, long, long time.
What do you do? HANG IN and HOLD ON! It's tough, it's rough and you just have to keep reminding yourself it's worth it. Believe me...and you'll just have to trust me on this one...it won't be so bad later on. Your memory will fade.
What to do in the meantime? Well, saltine crackers MIGHT help you...but if you're like me, that gets old and doesn't always work.
You can try ginger ale, too. I don't drink soda so I actually went to the store and picked up some of those ginger chews to suck on.
Peppermint tea can be a gem, too. Just be careful with tea...they are not all alike and some are safer than others when it comes to pregnancy. Stay away from green tea.
When it was really bad...and I mean like not keeping anything down, I would eat chicken broth and some toast. That seemed to be light enough to keep down and easy enough to try and keep eating. Find something that works for you. It might work one day and not another. Just keep at it. Your body will tell you what it needs.
I wanted to be so natural and not take any meds but it got to the point to where I needed to keep food down. So I talked to my doctor who put me on some medicine that is actually used for morning sickness and even chemo patients to help with the aftermath of radiation. It makes the brain think you aren't sick. It helped so much and made a world of difference. I am still glad I took it!


2. STRETCH MARKS:
My little brother once described my expanding stomach to my grandmother with the words, "it looks like a tiger attacked her". Seriously. One day I was congratulating myself on no stretch marks and then the next day, they were just... there. They started to appear in one day...and took over. After about 6 months post pregnancy, they started to fade but they are deep and still evident. But it's okay...I look at my little one and realize how incredible it is that my body was able to hold that sweet pea and I know it was worth it.
Some things you can do:
Make sure to put lotion on your stomach, thighs, arms, etc. Keep them moisturized...I like to use extra virgin coconut oil...I stress extra virgin because it makes a difference.
You can try all types of different things for stretch marks but it comes down to genes. If you get them, there was nothing you could have done to avoid it...it's just a battle scar.


3. COMMENTS:
Comments. Cute, rude, funny, sweet. People can't help themselves! Everyone feels like they need to give their opinion and prepare you for parenthood. They also feel like they must talk about your belly all of the time. So as soon as you are done talking with one person about your belly, the next person you talk to seems to want to have the same exact conversation. And you'll almost always get the people that want to take "fun" pictures of you and your growing front side. Sometimes even with other people standing around you with balloons or basketballs tucked under their shirts. The thing is, after the picture is taken, everyone else removes the balloons and you're left looking the same as before.
Yep, people are great. And no...once the baby comes, they won't get better. Just think of it as your way of getting the chance to grow stronger. As a parent, you're going to have to make decisions that won't always go with the flow of public opinion and definitely not with your teenager. So, learning to hear what others say and decide what to do yourself is an art. People will unknowingly help you do that.


4. HUGENESS:
Your third trimester will keep you from even thinking about whether or not "hugeness" is a word. You'll know you embody it. It creeps up on you usually after the first maternity clothes shopping day and before the baby shower. Maybe you're rare and find that it's fun but most of us just feel plain crappy. You grow to hate the word "cute" and vow to take down the next person who calls you that with your protruding mountain that's strapped below your double domes of what used to be the front of your body. Shoes may begin to feel tighter, your breath sounds like a 60 year old trying to run a marathon without training, and your pelvic bones may feel like they've broken in two. Yeah, no one likes to mention the pain part of pregnancy before the actual labor. I guess everyone wants grandchildren.
But even if those kicks in the ribs wake you up at night, you'll be kissing those same little toes for days at a time once they make it out of your tummy.


These are just a few of the basic things to look out for as you start your journey. Try to embrace it...realize this is what women were made to do even when it feels like you're the only one in the world that can be feeling the way you do. You'll learn a lot about who you are and what you're capable of after this. Persevere...

Where do I start???

I have so many favorites after many sleepless nights on the internet and a hungry baby. Here's a quick beginning list to starting your wild web wars:

www.babysteals.com : Check every day! This is an online "deal of the day" website that lists fun things for sale at a very discounted price. Their company has 3 different sites: babysteals, kidsteals, and scrapbooksteals...they are all fun to look at. Just make sure you look early or everything will be sold out! (updated 9AM MST everyday)

www.diapers.com : LOVE them! What a helpful website when I'm cooped up in the house and need a stash of diapers pronto! They will deliver in 1-2 days free if you order $49 or more. They have a sister website, soap.com, that has a bunch of bath and home products for stocking up on things like dish soap and bandaids. They're customer service rocks, too!

www.amazon.com : Do research on the products you think you want...There have been so many times where I thought I found the product of the century, only to read reviews or real customers who say otherwise...If you take the time to read what others have experience with that "must have" item, you can save a lot of money...and sanity. Many times, people will suggest any even better product than the one you are actually looking up. Amazon tends to have the most reviews and a plethora of products to read about. 

www.ebates.com : Sign up for this now. It's free and gives you a percentage of what you order online just for going through their website. Pretty much, they're paying you to shop through them. All you do is go to the ebates, look for a participating store (i.e. diapers.com), click "shop now", and it takes you to the website you want to buy something from. Then, it tracks your purchase and gives you a percentage back by check. No stupid ads or gimmicks involved. Just cash.

There are sooo many things on the internet for parents like us. But this is a good start for the beginner...and maybe a suggestion to some of us who have too big of a list. Time to simplify?

Sigh

Sigh. Can I start a blog off like that? It's really a word that encompasses so many meanings: worn out, relaxed, slowing down, preparing, reflecting. Isn't that parenthood?
If you're a parent, you probably have found yourself sighing a lot these days. you might be a new parent and up in the wee hours of the morning trying to figure out just why you've decided to breastfeed. Or maybe you're a seasoned mom surfing the net while the kids take a nap...a five minute nap, of course.
This blog is to reflect on all stages of parenthood...from first pregnancy test to well, forever. Cause once you're a parent, you're in it for life.
So let's band together and take a sigh...but let's be thankful we get to sigh. It's hard work being a parent but ALWAYS worth it. From the dirty diapers, salty tears, bubbly smiles, first words, grade school projects, high school drama, college adventures, and "adult life"...we have the privilege to help shape a human being...and let them shape us.