Training

How to Make Exercise Your #1 Priority

 

Every day, you’re forced to make a number of decisions about what’s important to you and prioritize them accordingly.

You decide if you’re going to work (most people decide yes).

You decide if you’re going to put pants on (again, usually a yes here too).

You decide if you’re going to walk/feed/play with the dog or make breakfast for your kid or pay your rent/mortgage/car loan.

In fact, for most people, their top priorities for an average day are pretty simple:

  • Family (including pets)
  • Work
  • Sleep
  • Eating
  • Entertainment/relaxation
  • Friends
  • Finances

The order will vary of course person to person, but you get the idea.

And for most people, these are no-brainer priorities. In fact, if you’re like the majority of people, you don’t even have to think about these types of responsibilities—you just accept them, and take care of them. And of course, over the years, you learn to prioritize—if you don’t, you’ll be fired, lose your house, force your dog to pee on the carpet, let your kid go hungry, etc.

So why is it that exercise isn’t on this list?

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7 Convincing Reasons to Work Out Outside

 

Summer is officially here, and that means means long, sunny days, fewer layers and warmer temperatures. Yet despite the beautiful weather, if you’re like most people, you’re still taking your workouts indoors.

And unless you’re a runner, tennis player or an ultimate frisbee star, you’ve probably spent most of your life exercising inside, whether it’s in a stuffy gym, a tiny apartment, or in random hotel rooms.

But the truth is, exercising indoors can be a bit… uninspiring. Seeing the same thing day after day may make you feel like you’re a hamster in a wheel—plus, it’s pretty boring at times.

The simple answer?

Try taking your workouts outside!

All you have to do is head to your backyard (if you have one), or even to a local park, beach, or playground—and get sweaty.

Sure, you’ll feel silly at first, and don’t be surprised if you get a few strange looks from curious bystanders (don’t worry, they’re only jealous of your incredible strength). But ultimately, working out outside packs so many benefits you’ll soon forget you’re feeling uncomfortable at all and start working even harder than normal (you don’t want strangers thinking you’re a total wimp, do you?).

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Train Like a Boxer: 10 Exercises to Get You in Fighting Shape

 

I’ve always loved the sport of boxing.

When I was younger, I punched a few holes in the wall (sorry, mom and dad), and pretty soon afterwards my parents bought me a punching bag (which is all I always wanted anyway, guess I should have brought that up sooner).

I had no idea what I was doing then when I tried to punch the damn thing—all I knew was that boxers were always in incredible shape and really badass, and I wanted to be just like them.

Fast forward a few years later, I got my personal training certification and got a job at a gym in New York City solely based on the fact that it had a boxing ring and an awesome, incredibly badass trainer. I started taking lessons right away, and quickly learned all my hooks, jabs, and undercuts. I fell even deeper in love with the sport.

There’s something so satisfying, so primal in a way, of punching something (or someone) as hard as humanly possible.

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How to Get Out of a Workout Rut

 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in a bit of a workout rut lately.

My actual workouts are still going great. I’m making steady improvements, and never miss a day (unless it’s my rest day, but that’s intentional of course).

I still end up sweaty, breathless and starving at the end of each workout, and typically lay on the floor in an exhausted heap after the last timer beeps. And I almost always beat my previous times and reps.

But still… I feel like I need a challenge. Something new, something that I don’t immediately do really well, something that’s… hard for me. Something to shake things up.

I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Being in a rut (or at least, feeling like it), whether it’s with your workouts or something else in your life, sucks. If you’re anything like me, it makes you feel less empowered, less awesome, and definitely less badass.

But unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this rut feeling… and luckily, I’ve figured out ways to get out of it in the past.

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kettlebell swings

The King of Exercises: Kettlebell Swings

kettlebell swings

If you were looking for the single perfect exercise—one that would not only burn a ton of calories, scorch fat, build muscle, boost your endurance, as well as improve your posture and keep you from getting low back pain—you’d need to look no further than the kettlebell swing.

With all the benefits it has to offer, kettlebell swings are truly the ‘king of exercises’—and all they require is one heavy, medieval looking piece of equipment that lasts a lifetime.

They’re one of my favorite exercises to include in the 12 Minute Athlete workouts—you can see them here, and here, and even here.

So…what exactly is a kettlebell swing?

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How to Assess Your Fitness Level

Most of the time, comparing yourself to others isn’t a good thing.

Looking through too many magazines with photoshopped, perfect bodies, measuring your own athletic abilities against those of super-trained, superhuman athletes—these types of comparisons can motivate you to push stronger, harder, faster—or they may cause you to lose all hope and give up all together.

But if you’re anything like me, you need some type of comparison to give you a sense of how fit you really are.

Back when you were in high school or junior high and played on a sports team or two (if you did play high school sports, of course), it was easy to figure out how fit you were. You knew whether you were good by how often you started on the basketball team, how often other players passed to you on the soccer field, how fast your 400 meter sprint was compared to the rest of the track team.

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Six Awesome 4-Minute Tabata Workouts You Can Do At Home

 

Tabatas are one of my favorite types of workouts of all time.

They’re short, incredibly effective, and mindblowingly hard if you do them right—everything that comprises a good workout.

I wrote an entire post on why Tabata workouts are so awesome, so I won’t go too into detail about them here. But basically, Tabata workouts are a method of exercise that lasts only four minutes, and requires you to go all out for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. You’ll repeat this cycle eight times to complete the workout.

You’ll need a timer to effectively do a Tabata, since no one can accurately count to 20 seconds when they’re working that hard. You can get any kind you like, but I always use this one because of its portability.

And trust me on this one—if you think that you can do four minutes of exercise in your sleep, you’re underestimating how hard Tabata workouts really are (if you do them right, that is).

Because Tabata workouts will kick your ass—but they’re worth every second of the pain.

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10 Reasons to Love High Intensity Interval Training

Let’s face it: most people aren’t really fans of long, monotonous exercise. I know I’m not.

Still, it’s impossible to go to a gym that’s not packed with people spending hours at a time on the various treadmills and elliptical machines. Yet most of them aren’t there because they enjoy it. They’re there because they think it’s the most efficient way to burn fat and lose weight.

But here’s the thing: they’re wrong.

Because while the cardio machines may tell you you’re staying in the ‘fat burning zone’ when you’re running at 5.5 mph for 60 minutes, the truth is you’re burning less calories overall than if you worked harder for a shorter amount of time.

Yes, it’s true—you can actually burn more fat and calories when you work out for less time instead of more.

Because with high intensity interval training, you’ll actually burn calories more efficiently than you would running for hours, and it takes way less time to complete.

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Announcing Fitter Faster Stronger: Get in the Best Shape of Your Life!

 

Get ready to get excited.

After months of planning, tons of time and effort creating really awesome workouts, countless calls with my mastermind group, weeks of editing, endless hours tweaking the design, and what feels like forever making sure I’ve created something I’m incredibly proud of and excited about…

I’m FINALLY officially releasing Fitter Faster Stronger!

So… what the heck is Fitter Faster Stronger?

Fitter Faster Stronger is a high intensity interval training (HIIT) program focusing on incredibly effective workouts that you can do with minimal equipment in around just 12 minutes a day.

This is the program I would have wanted when I was first starting out trying to get into shape. For less than the cost of one personal training session (or less than half the cost of one month’s gym membership), you can get the accountability, planning and motivation you need to get in the best shape of your life.

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7 Phenomenal Push Up Variations You Should Do

krista stryker push up

Push ups are one of the most underrated exercises of all time.

Most females assume they can’t even do them, and most guys assume they’re too good for them.

So what happens? People just don’t do them.

But here’s the thing: push ups are one of the best exercises you can do. Not only do they target every single muscle group of your upper body, they get you stronger, leaner and fitter overall in no time at all.

Push ups are also awesome because:

  • They’re a compound exercise, meaning you’ll save time on having to target all the individual muscles in your upper body.
  • They promote muscular balance in your body.
  • They are a total bodyweight exercise, so you never have to go to a gym or pull out any equipment to do them.

In fact… drop down and give me 10 push ups, right now!

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