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Cari Fit

Cari Fit

Fitness Advice, Workout Tips, and Inspiration

Training Tips

The Best Exercise For Summer – The “Pop Squat” – as Seen in Muscle and Fitness Hers

Muscle and Fitness Hers Summer 2018 issue is out on newsstands now and I’m super excited to once again be a featured trainer! I’m featured in page 26 giving trainer tips for the “Move of The Month” which is the Pop Squat – one of my favorites!

Pop It Off

Use the pop squat to get your lower body in summer-ready shape.

by Alyssa Shafer

“Build lower-body strength, increase power, and rev your metabolism with this all-in-one plyo move – the pop squat. There’s no equipment required, so you can do it anywhere, anytime. And there’s one more bonus this exercise gives you that you won’t get in other plyometric squats. ‘Since you have to cross your legs as you jump up, you’ll activate the inner thigh muscles more than you would with a regular squat.’ says trainer Cari Shoemate, founder of Houston’s Bombshell Bootcamp. Add three to four sets of 10 to 12 preps into your next leg day to round out your strength session or use pop squats at the end of any workout for a high-intensity cardio burst. Shoemate has clients do 40 to 50 reps to blast fat and get the heart rate soaring – set a timer and try to beat your best each time you do this.”

*Check out the issue for step-by step instructions on how to do this move along with a ton of other great workouts!

Join The Honey We’re Home Fitness Challenge!

I’m super excited to be part of Megan’s (of Honey We’re Home) fitness challenge! I helped her create the workouts for the challenge!

She started the challenge last week (you can view last week’s here) – but it’s not too late to join! Even if you don’t join the challenge – I encourage you to check out her site and follow her on Instagram! She is very inspiring and super fit! She has even competed in 2 bikini competitions and shares her diet and fitness tips! She also posts great fashion finds including her cute workout clothes (I got my favorite blue workout crops after seeing hers!), home decor and even organization tips for busy moms and families.

Here is the workout that I created for this week.

 

How cute is this outfit?!

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Holiday HIIT Workouts For Home and Gym

Over the holidays we typically don’t have much free time and are extra busy with shopping, parties and family/friends. But, this is actually the BEST time to keep up with your workouts. Working out over the holidays will not only keep you looking your best, but it will relieve stress, counteract extra holiday treats and also give you a jump start on those New Years resolutions and fitness goals. Try these workout below – they only take 30 minutes each.

At Home HIIT Workout (30 minutes):

Equipment: 1 set of medium dumbbells and a mat, towel or carpet for cushion

Warmup by doing 10 squats, 10 jumping jacks and 10 sets of high knees x 4 sets (about 3 minutes)

Perform all 5 exercises in a row and aim for 15-20 reps of each. Then, do the whole workout 3-4 times.

  1. Squat with Hip Abduction. Perform a squat, then kick your right leg out to the side, squat again and then do left leg. Hold 1-2 weights to make it harder.
  2. Pushup to Ankle Reach. Perform 1 pushup, then press yourself up and back (like downward dog) and reach your right hand under your body and touch your left ankle or shin. Repeat pushup and then touch left hand to right leg.
  3. Double Crunch. Place hands behind head and crunch your knees towards chest, as you bring your shoulder blades up off the floor.
  4. Plie Squat With Alternating Upright Row. Stand with toes pointing slightly out and 1 weight in your right hand. Perform 1 upright row with right arm, then squat down and set weight on the floor. As you stand back up from squat position, pick up weight with left hand and perform upright row on left arm. Alternate quickly and perform 20 reps.
  5. Burpee With Bent Over Row. Perform a regular burpee with your hands on your weights. Squat down, place weights on the ground, jump back to plank, jump feet back in, stand up (be careful not to round your back as you stand up) and perform a bent-over row with your knees bent. Repeat.

 

HIIT Workout At The Gym (30 minutes):

Equipment: Gym machines and 1 kettlebell

  1. warmup on a cardio machine for 5 minutes
  2. Grab a kettlebell (10-15lb for beginners, 15-20lb for intermediate and 25+lb for advanced or guys) and find the seated leg extension machine (for quads). Perform 1 set of quad extension on the machine (make sure the machine is set up correctly for your body and height). Aim for a weight that’s heavy enough where reps 12-15 are almost impossible to complete but you can with good form. Then, stand up by the machine and do 15-20 squat to shoulder presses holding the kettlebell (by the ball and not handle). Alternate the machine with squat to KB shoulder press 3-4 times.
  3. Find either a seated hamstring curl machine or a face-down hamstring curl machine (lie face-down and curl heels to glutes). Perform 12-15 reps, then stand up and perform 1-arm kettlebell rows (hold kettlebell by the handle). Bend knees and step back with your right leg so you are in a semi-lunge position. Place left hand on knee, bend over (keep back flat) and row the kettlebell up and back with your right arm. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Perform 12-15 reps then switch arms. Repeat both exercises 3-4 times.
  4. Find a seated hip abduction machine. This is the one where the pads go on the outside of your knees and you are pressing them outward to work glutes and outer thighs/hip abductors. Perform 15-20 reps and be sure not to let the weights crash together – so that means you have to constantly keep tension in the machine and never let your knees touch together. After 1 set, stand (or you can do these seated) and grab the kettlebell and do 12-15 overhead tricep extensions. Repeat both so you do 3-4 sets.
  5. Finish with some extra cardio and core. Do a standing high-knee run for 45 seconds and then hold a plank for 45 seconds. Repeat both 3-4 times.

 

5 Questions to Ask Your Trainer DURING Your Workout

1. Am I doing this correctly?  – Trainers will be watching your every move and correcting your form during each workout, but it still doesn’t hurt to ask them if you are doing it right – especially if it hurts or something doesn’t feel normal.
2. Can you recommend a good post-workout snack or meal? Most trainers will help you with your diet and nutrition, but it’s good to get their opinion on your meals and snacks and they might have some fun and healthy snack and meal options they can share.
3. Where should I be feeling this?  If you aren’t sure where you should be “feeling” the exercise or what muscle you are working – ask your trainer! It will help you stay focused if you know exactly what you are working (like shoulders for example) and having a mind-body connection and staying focused on the muscle group you are working will help you get results faster.
4. Why am I not seeing results? This is an important question to ask IF you are following all of your trainer’s guidelines (including diet) and you have been working out with him/her for at least 4 weeks. It might be that your diet is off or maybe you need to add in an additional day of training.
5. Why am I doing this exercise? You may be wondering why your trainer always has you do a certain exercise in a certain order or why they have you do an exercise you hate. Odds are this is for good reason and they are doing things that way to benefit you. They’d love to explain why they are doing certain things and educate you about your workouts so that you can understand how your body is going to respond and the science behind it.

Here is the video of me training Yasmine from the Houston Rockets Power Dancers (featured above)!Screen Shot 2016-08-18 at 2.42.15 PM

How To Stretch Your Hamstrings

Tight hamstrings can not only effect your workouts but they can also cause lower back pain. Learning how to stretch them properly is key. If you incorporate some stretches into your weekly workout routine, you’ll become more flexible, have better running form and also decrease injuries to your lower back. But, be sure to stretch your hamstrings AFTER your workout or after you warmup first. You never want to stretch cold muscles – especially hamstrings. You also don’t want to OVERSTRETCH your hamstrings or you could end up pulling a muscle and make things worse. So, go easy on the stretches and make sure you warm. Another good option for hamstring stretching is the foam roller.

 

Push Your Limits With Partial Reps and Other Training Techniques

Oxygen Magazine asked me what I thought about a few “old school” training techniques that have been around a long time but many people don’t know about. One is ascending/descending reps and the other is the partial reps technique. Below is the article taken from Oxygen:

Technique: Ascending/Descending sets

aka “Running the Rack” or “Running the Stack”

The premise of this method is simple: You’re either moving up (ascending) or down (descending) in weight during one super-long set. Extending your sets like this increases the time under tension for your muscles, which in turn forces adaptation and change.

You can increase or decrease the weight as many times as you’d like during your set, depending on your masochistic leanings for the day. Let’s use the machine chest press as an example of a moderately intense ascending set, changing weight four times. Begin by setting the weight stack with 5-pound weights per side for 10 reps. After rep 10, immediately change the pin setting on the weight stack so that you’re next using 10 pounds per side and go for another 10 reps. Again without resting, move the pin again setting the weight at 15 pounds per side and do still another 10 reps (or as many as you can muster). Finally, move the pin up to the 20-pound weights and rep until you can’t go anymore. For a descending set (also called a “drop set”), reverse that sequence, starting with your heaviest weight and decreasing every time you reach a point of initial failure.

An ascending set on its own serves as a good warm-up for any bodypart, while a descending set is a super finisher. The good news is you should only have to do one ascending or descending set per exercise and per workout to reach kaputville.

Word of caution: Be aware that certain exercise techniques may upset your fellow gym-goers. Running the rack using a series of dumbbells, for example, may not be practical during the gym’s peak hours because this technique can have you monopolizing a lot of gym real estate, which may not sit well with other gym members. Rule of thumb for ascending/descending sets: If your ascending/descending set will require a lot of real estate, you might want to choose another technique or train during non-peak hours when the gym isn’t so packed with members.

Try It Yourself

Pick an exercise in your next workout to try either an ascending or a descending set, such as machine chest presses or machine shoulder lateral raises or cable curls.

“This technique is traditionally done with dumbbells, but you could easily do it with a machine that you can easily adjust,” says Cari Shoemate, a personal trainer and yoga instructor based in Houston (cari-fit.com). For example, use a cable machine with a rope attachment for doing triceps pressdowns: Start either with a low weight and build with each set or with a heavy weight and drop with each set.

If you want to get creative, try using a bodyweight exercise. Shoemate explains: “Try descending sets with push-ups. Using a bench and step, work your way from the hardest angle to the easiest, starting with high-decline push-ups (feet on a bench), then to low-decline push-ups (feet on a step), then regular push-ups and finally incline push-ups with your hands on a step, feet on the floor.”

Technique: Partial Reps

In Oxygen, we love to preach about doing full range-of-motion reps. And in fact, studies confirm that stopping short robs you of the complete benefit of an exercise. That said, there is a time when a less-than-complete rep is not only acceptable but encouraged.

Partial reps allow you to extend a set beyond the point of initial failure, putting more beneficial stress on your muscles and promoting a hormone response that sets recovery and repair activity into motion. You may not be able to do a full rep anymore, but you can likely still move through part of it, trying for three-quarters, then a half and then one-quarter reps, stopping when even those become impossible.

“I’ve always been a fan of partial reps because they can be done anywhere and with any type of weights or resistance,” Shoemate says. Partial reps typically focus more on building muscle endurance versus strength, but it really depends on how you do them. “If you’re doing higher reps, then your focus will be more on endurance,” Shoemate says. “But if you only do a certain angle or range of motion and are using heavier weights, it’ll definitely build strength and give muscles more shape and definition.”

Because they’re so intense, use partial reps sparingly on a set or two at the end of a workout once or twice a month.

Read the rest of this article and another great technique here. 

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My favorite partial reps exercise is called “21’s” done with bicep curls. Start by doing 7 full range reps (extend arms all the way down and then curl all the way to the top). Then, do 7 reps on only at the high range – starting at the top of the curl and extend or lower arms only halfway down then back to the top. Finish with 7 lower range – starting with the weight down by your sides and then stop when you get to the halfway point.

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