Instagram Fitness Craze

Fitness has always been a part of my life but as many of you know, I only started getting results in the past year when I started training with Meriah. Since I've made the commitment to living healthier, I have started following a ton of accounts of fitness pros, bikini models, health experts etc for workout plans and healthy recipes. But of course, along the way I have had a ton of "holy shit moments" where I've felt discouraged about my own journey and progressed because I'm looking at people who have already reached their goals and who do this for a living. One of the fitties that I follow is this awesome NPC Bikini Competitor, Rachel Del Vescovo. Her blog that captures her life, her fitness progress and competition prep is called Pretty and Pumped. A little background on Rachel - she was born with arthritis and her pain was so intense that she had to be home-schooled until she eventually got both of her hips replaced and look at her now! Obviously she has a different appreciate now for being able to work out when the littlest things were such a struggle before but it's a really inspirational story about overcoming adversity and not letting yourself be your own excuse.

Last week she posted about the Instagram Fitness Craze and how she felt the same way prior to being competition ready and it just made me have so much respect for her. In her post she talks about how prior to competing she would stalk fitness models on insta and start to obsess with wanting to be like them (just like every other girl) and the effects that it can have on a girl's head. I really wanted to share this post with the rest of you because it is refreshing and 100% real. Check out Rachel's post here and the rest of her blog for more amazing fitness and health tips

 

 

   

Meriah & Steph Collaboration Post: Deadlift Continuation

Meriah is in NYC for two weeks from Denmark so we met up this week to train together :) Last week when I posted about the 2 most elementary Deadlifts, she messaged me right away saying we should take this a step further and do a collaboration post with other deadlifts, because deadlifts are number one in her book! So we did just that :)

Like I mentioned in my first post, you can use a variation of weights to do your deadlifts, but the best in my opinion for the most basic deadlifts would be to use a barbell. In this case, we were working out at the gym in my building so we used a regular bar to demo.

To review the Romanian deadlift, slightly bend your knees and sit your hips back- keeping your back flat. Keep your hands positioned on the bar in alignment with your legs, shoulder width apart and go down to your shins and repeat.

  

The next that Meriah is doing is the Wide Grip Deadlift. This is an easy modification and pretty self explanatory. Grip the bar as wide as you can and do the same Romanian Deadlift motion as the first exercise. This grip is for your upper back and it allows you to go deeper into the dead lift.

 

The third deadlift we featured is the Sumo Deadlift with High Pull. For this exercise Meriah used the kettlebell. Stand in a wide stance with your feet turned out at an angle. Have a close together grip with your arms inside of your knees. Pull the weight up so that your arms form a V underneath your chin and your elbows are pointed in the air.

 

The last exercise is the Single Leg Deadlift. This exercise is done with dumbbells. Start standing with the weights by your side. Lean forward, holding the weights in front of you and simultaneously lifting 1 leg backwards in the air. Start by doing 10 on the first leg and then switch to the other & do the same.

 

Let us know if you guys have any follow up questions! :) - Steph and Meriah

Deadlifts

The 30 day squat challenge that I posted is everywhere and social media has really taken off with showing the amazing results. An update/next step to that would be a dead lift challenge. There is a debate as to whether squats or dead lifts are better but honestly they both make for amazing results and I think they should be done in tandem. There is no way I would know what a dead lift was if it wasn't for having a trainer. Deadlifts are most known for targeting and lifting your glutes/butt/ass/cheeks but this exercise actually strengthens 6 other areas: hamstrings, upper back, lower back, shoulders, quads, and abs. There are two major types of dead lifts that I do- regular Deadlifts and Romanian Deadlifts. If you don't already do these you should try to incorporate them in every workout you do.

For Regular dead lifts or "stiff leg deadlifts" you can use a dumbbell or separate hand weights. When women are doing high reps with weights, they're limited with how much they can increase the weight but deadlifts are definitely an exercise where you can challenge yourself and really increase the weight. In these pictures I only used 20 lb weights for higher reps but when I use a dumbbell I lift a lot more.

 

Staring in a standing position hold the weights, lean forward and have the weights follow your legs down to your shins while keeping your legs as straight as possible. Then lift back up, squeezing your glutes and repeat for the appropriate amount of reps to the weight you are lifting

Looking at this picture, my knees should honestly be less bent but my legs were so tight when I did this and I should have stretched out more before working out 

For Romanian Deadlifts, start in the same starting position but as you start to bring the weight down to your shins, bend your knees. For this type of deadlift, you should be going closer to the floor and stick your butt out more. Once again continue this for as many reps relative to the weight you are lifting

 

Both exercises are really simple but the results are unreal. For me, having bad knees - deadlifts are less painful than squats but like I said before you should really be doing both instead of one over the other

Get Your Circuit On

Those that know me really well, know I've always made time for the gym and fitness. To be honest, I've always struggled with my weight and had to put a huge effort in the gym to maintain as well as watch what I eat. I saw my first nutritionist when I was a junior in high school and I have had trainers throughout my whole life. It's no secret that rent/life in New York City is anything but cheap and people are forced to pick and choose where to spend and save their money. Having a trainer is a huge financial commitment but I am a firm believer that it's a great investment. I met my last trainer a year ago at NYSC and she changed my outlook on fitness and my workout approach completely. Like many New Yorkers, I struggle to find the time while juggling work and a social life. Meriah trained me in a way that I was able to workout for a shorter amount of time with less cardio and more weights. Most girls get in the gym and immediately hop on the treadmill (this was me for yearssss) but weight-loss results happen much quicker when you're lifting or doing floor exercises. I was of the mindset that I just wanted to be skinny but after a few months in of training with Meriah, I started to get definition in my arms and back and it definitely changed my view and fitness goals.

We would do 30 minute circuit training sessions and the results happened fairly quickly (but not overnight). Circuit training is great because you take 3 different exercises ex: pull ups, push ups, and kettlebell swings - and do each exercise for 20 reps and then do the whole circuit 3 times. You should be working so fast that the cardio is included. A typical workout should have 3-5 different circuits which means you do between 9-15 different exercises. Circuit training also allows you to plan your workouts prior to going into the gym so that if you're training by yourself you can be purpose driven. When I workout by myself I always write workouts down on the notepad in my phone so I have a routine that I'm following and I don't give myself an excuse to leave.

Summary of the story is, if you're struggling the way I have with making time for working out before or after work, I seriously recommend adjusting your finances to invest in a trainer. It's a guarantee that they will push you harder than yourself and not only that but having someone else depend on you to be on time and for their finances really holds you accountable to get your @$$ to the gym and do it consistently. It's important when finding your trainer that you can find a certain synergy. Since I met Meriah last March, I have probably only missed a handful of days at the gym. She gave me exercises that I could do in a hotel room when traveling for work and taught me the power of giving your body natural energy from working out when you feel run down and exhausted (so much of it is mind over matter).

To bring the story to current day- Meriah ended up moving to Costa Rica for the last 3 months where she participated in 2 amazing Yoga training programs. She is moving to Denmark on Sunday but will occasionally be guest blogging about health and fitness on my blog :) Meriah set me up with my current trainer who I am also really lucky to have! Her name is Nadine and she is actually training to run in the Olympics for Haiti.

 

Here are some of the results I've had - cut me a break on the picture quality and my hair, it was taken at 6am!

 

Here is an awesome picture of Meriah showing off her yoga strength in Costa Rica