Chaps-Fit Plan: Proper Technique

Watch as we show you how to properly do the exercises from the Chaps-Fit Plan.

In the January 2012 issue, we shared with you some exercises and healthy-eating tips to help you get back into your chaps for show season. Here, we’ll show you the proper technique for those exercises: lunges, squats, box jumps, and mountain climbers. Our volunteers also demonstrate the advanced version of each exercise, plus two other exercises: kettle bell swings and dead lifts.

Maximize Your Workout
To get the most out of the workout, certified personal trainer and nutritionist Rick Rogers recommends adding two, whole-body exercises that will help you see the most results: kettle bell swings and dead lifts.

Anytime you’re using more than one muscle group at a time, you’re burning that approximate equivalent amount of calories. For example, if you’re doing bicep curls, you’re only burning the calories from the bicep curl. Doing a dead lift, you’re using about 80 percent of your body to lift the weight up off the ground. So, you’re burning that many more calories in terms of percentage.

Do these two to three times a week either in the Tabata format, or, if you have more time, in between your two Tabata sets. (The Tabata format, mentioned in the article, means you’ll do reps of each exercise for 20 seconds, and then rest for 10 seconds. You’ll do four rounds of each exercise, resting one minute in between.)

Kettle Bell Swings
Grab hold of the kettle bell and place your feet shoulder-width apart, keeping your collar bones nice and high. Then, while bending your knees and letting your hips come back, swing the bell back. Next, squeeze your backside together and shove your hip bones forward as you stand up. That propels the bell up, and then you bring it down.

“It’s one of the single fastest fat-burning exercises on the planet because there’s never a rest period,” says Rogers. “You control it as your bring the kettle bell up, and you fight the momentum as you bring it down.”

Dead Lifts
Start with the bar (or kettle bell/dumbbells) on the floor, with your legs about shoulder-width apart, toes and knees forward. Sitting back, keeping your knees behind your toes, squat down, keeping your collar bones high and looking forward?grab the bar, extending your hips forward and standing up. Breathe out as you come forward and slightly lean back.

Though kettle bells and dumbbells are easy to find at most big-box stores, don’t feel like you have to go out and buy something to do the workout.

Almost any object that you can grab onto, swing, and let go of, without it becoming a projectile, can work for the kettle bell swing says Rogers.

For dead lifts, I’ve seen people work out with everything from duffle bags, to suitcases, to their kids, he adds.

The Paleo Diet
To see how Rogers’ nutritional tips from the article work, visit the On Staff blog.

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