Fit Mom Archives - GoodFitFam

30-Minutes to Muscle – Chest Routine

January 17, 2019 by Karen Leave a Comment

Chest Workout

I slept late and woke up just before the sun and twins jumping on the bed. Long day ahead. When you don’t have time meditate, throw some iron around. If someone asks you what day it is it? You say Chest Day. I had to pare down my chest routine but despite missing the alarm. It’s never too late to hit the gym.

So, no excuses with a 30-minute workout to target the chest. Nothing like a great chest routine to power-up for all the craziness that lying ahead.

Get up and get out, here’s the workout:

4 sets not including warm-up

Incline Dumbbell Press descending reps 12,10,8, 6, increasing weight with each set. Make sure you go heavy. If you can do more than the prescribed reps, it’s time to more. It’s like hot sauce the more you use the more you body gets used to. Don’t let your body ever adapt to the weight in your hands. This first set is the power set for the day so give it everything you have.

Flat Bench Straight Arm Pullover 12-15 reps. This will undoubtedly feel a bit awkward the first time. Make sure you give yourself some room.

Triset of cable flyes starting low to high, then mid, then high to low 12 reps each to complete one set. By now your chest should be on fire. The diagram below rows the cable flye for the mid point. Make sure you keep your head raised high, even if that means staring at yourself for uncomfortable long time.

Go Strong Mamas!

Help Kitchen Visual Guides

March 26, 2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

Help Kitchen Visual Guides

Fire up the color printer because we have 16 of our favorite kitchen diagrams. We need these because we never have all the ingredients, always wonder if that’s still good to eat, and what is the best wine to pair with string cheese. In all seriousness, tape some of these up on the inside of your cabinets for a fast answer to simple kitchen questions.

1. Easy Soups

Hold up, you may not need to run to the store to pick up dinner. Here are 10 soups you can make combining an odd can of beans, the last veggies in your fridge and seasonings that may have expired.

2. Spice Pairings

Did you know you can use Caraway with Cottage cheese?

3. A Guide to Cooking and Baking Substitutions

This one is super useful. We have made entire recipes using only substitutions.

4. Cooking Methods

Disappointed the torch method can’t be used for Grilled Cheese.

5. Guide to Flavoring with Spices

Another spicy visualization.

6. Conversion Chart

For when you find a recipe on a British Blog… Or when you’re anywhere else in the world and need to know what the American’s are talking about.

7. Kitchen Volume Conversion Aid

When you need to turn the volume up in the kitchen…

8. Healthy Oil Cooking Guide

If you watch Food Network, you may not know you can’t use Olive Oil for everything.

9. The Onion Breakdown

This is helpful in some dishes but I normally ignore everything except the Red Onion bit.

10. Egg Substitutions

If I don’t have eggs, I normally have bananas. The PB substitution is mind-blowing.

11. How Much to Serve at a Party

Cupcake ratio seems a bit low.

12. Veggie Cooking Cheat Sheet

You can’t throw in all veggies at the same time and expect it to taste good.

13. Perfect Cookie

All look good to me, but 7,3,6,5,4,8,2,1

14. How to Store Your Groceries

Have you stored a peeled banana more than a day? I’d like to hear the story behind that.

15. Real Good Cheap Easy Food

Lots of good recipes and note the shopping list on the sides.

16. Wine & Cheese Pairing

Everyone knows Boursin and Gruner Veltliner pair well, but you may not know cheddar and merlot are BFF’s

Try this 40-minute Full Back Workout

December 27, 2016 by Karen 1 Comment

Whole Back Workout

Full Back workout Deadlifts hyperextensions lat pulldowns Do you know all the muscles of your back? We categorize it as the back but there’s a bunch of different muscles working together. It’s important to train each and more important to know how it works. This workout hits it all in just 40 minutes and is achievable at all fitness levels. This back workout includes deadlifts, hyperextensions, lat pulldowns, and pullups.

Upper back superset – 3/4 sets

Don’t go more than a week or two without doing pull-ups. Assisted ones are perfectly fine. All sizes, shapes and fitness levels approach pulls differently, but the results are dramatic; improved strength and an aesthetic that aligns with just about everyone who goes to the gym. The second exercise in this superset is the Iso lateral pulldown. By sitting on a standard pulldown machine sideways and using one arm at a time allows for a better stretch. Ignore anyone telling you you’re sitting in the machine wrong and focus on the results!

Pull ups with bodyweight, rep until failure each set

Full Back workout Deadlifts hyperextensions lat pulldowns

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Iso lateral lat pulldowns with ascending weight 12, 10, 8 reps

iso lateral

Mid back portion superset

Moving on to the middle back. These are staples of every bodybuilder’s workout menu. I like to call the rows, lawnmower pulls because you mimic the motion of starting a lawnmower. I also can’t always remember its name. Regular pull ups are great but try these bodyweight pull-ups using the smith machine.

Flat bench dumbbell isolateral Row12, 10, 8
Full Back workout Deadlifts hyperextensions lat pulldowns
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Mid back pull ups rep until failure

Low Back Superset

The low back is super important. Taking a strong low back with you into your 30s & 40s will say a lot about your health for the rest of your life. Mobility is the key so don’t slack. Here we did some hyperextensions to really focus on squeezing the muscle. Then, if you thought you weren’t going to see deadlifts in this workout you were wrong. Since we’re near the end of the workout, you’re not going to be able to go heavy. Light weight and great form are the ingredients needed

Hyperextensions with weights until failure. Special attention put on middle back.

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Modified Deadlifts 12, 10, 8

Full Back workout Deadlifts hyperextensions lat pulldowns

Stretch well and walk out straighter than you came in. Go Strong Mamas!

30 Minutes to Muscle : Chest Day

December 5, 2016 by Karen Leave a Comment

Friday means we sometimes have a chance to workout together while the kids are at school. Most of the week we do our own things, watch our own shows and take shifts watching the kids so the other can work or cook, so it’s nice to focus on each other for a hour or two.

Having a spotter means it’s chest day. Numbers are starting to climb back up thanks to having someone to push and help. Setting goals is one thing, having someone to help make them attainable is the key. If you share the struggle you reap the success. The goal of a 225 bench was set on here a couple years back and it’s still out there so be sure to track my progress!

What some fitness goals have you’ve set?

Here’s the 30 Minutes to Muscle workout

Flat Bench Bench Press

135 x 10

140 x 5

145 x 5

155 x 5

Include Dumbbell

40 x 12

45 x 8

50 x 6

Dumbbell Flyes

30 x 8

20 x 12

Finding a Workout Environment

November 6, 2016 by Karen 1 Comment

It’s taken 4 months but I have joyfully found an environment I can fully workout in. You know the environment where you have full access to the equipment you need to build muscle( and you’re not charged an extra fee to use it). A gym in which you’re not waiting for someone to stop hoarding equipment because there’s enough for everyone. A gym where you’re not desperately looking around wondering what you’re going to use to target the next body part.

I found a fully equipped gym where I can feel free to workout my hardest, grunts and grimaces galore. As I expressed my gratitude to the owner, she put it simply, “Environment is everything”.

Here is the first decent arm workout I had since landing in Vermont, complements of LIFT VT!

1.) 4 sets of straight bar curls descending reps, increasing weights 15-12-10-8 reps

Bicep Curl

superset with

Flat bench skull crushers, straight into close grip press descending reps, increasing weights 15-12-10-8 reps

Ez Bar Skull Crushers

2.)Incline Curls, straight into hammer curls descending reps increasing weights 10-8-6 reps

Incline Curls

superset with

Single Overhead dumbbell extensions descending reps, increasing weight 10-8-6

Overhead tricep extensions

3.) Finish off with 3 sets of dips until failure.

Triceps Dips

30-40 minutes including rest periods and stretches, easily done before work.

Go strong mama’s!