Tag Archives: Gym

The Best Exercises to Build a Booty!

General Fitness, Workouts, , , , ,

Hi friends!  If you’re like 90% + of women out there, you want a nice, round, perky butt!  Believe it or not, the glutes (butt) are one of the hardest muscle groups to work, and one of the top body areas both men and women want to change in their physiques!  Most of us have either a.) alot of fat in the butt area or b.) have really underdeveloped glute muscles leading to a pancake or flat butt!  When I first started training several years ago, my booty was really lacking muscle development, and was one of my weakest body parts on stage.  I’ve spent the last few years training glutes at least twice a week, and they have improved SO much thanks to alot of repetitions of these exercises below.  Here are my favorite exercises to train my glutes that will help you build that booty just in time for summer!

1.) SQUATS!! Bottom line (Ha! Pun definitely intended!) this movement is the KEY to really developing that round, booty shelf look that comes with a great butt!   There are SO many types of squats!!  Mix these up every time you train legs– plie squats (feet wide toes out, using either a dumbbell or body weight– these will target your inner thighs more), jump squats, hack squats, front squats, sissy squats, Bulgarian split squats, pistol squats, air squats, bosu ball squats, heavy barbell squats at the squat rack or on the Smith Machine, and high rep lighter weight squats too!  The great thing about squats is that there are so many variations with equipment, foot placement, intensity, etc., that you can incorporate several versions of them into every leg workout.  Here’s a great link to a bodybuilding.com article on different versions of squats.

Squat Variations from Bodybuilding.com

2.) Leg Press-  Leg Press, ooohhhhhh Leg Press.  I have a love hate relationship with this machine.  It literally kicks your ass.  And hams, and quads, and can get your heart pumping SUPER fast when you go really heavy with it.  It’s one of the oldest machines around, and looks really intimidating, but it’s not.  Most gyms have both a plate loading version and a pin weight version.  Personally, I prefer the plate loading type.  Foot placement can really change which muscles are doing the work in the movement.  If your feet are higher on the platform, you’ll feel it more in your upper hamstrings and glutes.  Wider feet will incorporate more inner thigh, narrow feet more outer thigh, and lower feet more quads.  Easy, right?  Try moving your feet around next time you’re on the Leg Press.  Be CAREFUL not to lock your knees out when you’re pushing the sled back up–you can break a knee that way dude!!

A traditional Leg Press

3.) Glute Kickbacks- These are AWESOME.  Personally, I love to do high volume repetition sets of these at the end of a workout as a finisher.  They’ll give you a great pump!  You can do them on either the glute kickback machine, or on a cable with an ankle band.  If you go the cable route, be sure to keep the weight low enough to keep good form.

One of my very first progress pictures taken in October 2014! No butt at all here!!
Took this last week after a crazy leg day!

4.) Lunges!!! I’ve done a bazillion of these over the years.  They’re not easy, but I’m convinced that next to squats, they are the building blocks of a great ass!  Like with squats, there are so many variations of these that you can really change it up.  Some of my favorites– weighted walking lunges with a barbell or dumbbells, uphill lunges (outside on a hill or ramp), lunge jumps, split lunges with foot on a bench and dumbells, curtsy lunges, and reverse lunges.  Change it up and do a few different versions in your next workout!   A tabata (HIIT session–try the tabata timer app; 20 seconds all out effort, 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds) of lunge jumps and squat jumps will definitely work your legs!  Try it as a finisher!

5.) Glute bridges.  You can do these with our without weight, banded, etc.  I prefer them with a barbell and a squeeze/hold at the top.  You’re gonna feel the burn for sure!

Amanda Latona- She’s the “Booty Queen” and is known world wide as the Queen of booty moves and glutes! #glutegoals

I hope that these exercises and ideas encourage you to experiment more with your typical workout routines.  Remember that muscles take YEARS to develop.  If you keep working hard, and you eat a clean diet consistently, you WILL see results!

I’m always here to answer questions, help, and encourage you, so feel free to email me at meredithlynchfitness@gmail.com, or DM me.

Till next time!

-Mere

Boulder Shoulders!

General Fitness, Workouts, , , , ,

Hi friends!

I hope this finds you all healthy and happy!  I don’t know about all of you, but I am definitely ready for the holidays!  I love this time of year—so many things to be thankful for, fun activities, and Christmas cheer.  It will be 2017 before we know it! Between studying for my upcoming NASM personal training test and decorating our new home, things have been pretty busy.

I wanted to make today’s post about my favorite moves for one of my favorite parts to train.  You may not know this, but your shoulder is an extremely complex joint.  Not only is it connected to several muscles in the arm, chest, neck, and back, but it also houses the rotator cuff!  Your rotator cuff is comprised of four muscles (here’s my NASM studying coming through), the Teres Minor, the Infraspinatus, the Supraspinatus, and the Subscapularis.  These muscles work together to allow for the wide range of motion and movements that make your shoulder so unique.  Your shoulders are utilized in several upper body exercises when you train chest and back, but because of their structural complexity, they are also easily susceptible to injury.

See? So many muscles!
Lots of bones connect at your shoulder too!

 

Be careful with your form!   When you’re training shoulders, it’s really important to make sure that you are training all angles of them, the front, rear, and side delts.  Again, this is a complex muscle/joint group!  Broader shoulders also make your waist appear smaller!  A total shortcut to getting every girl’s dream “hourglass” curves!  Here are a few of my go- to moves for awesome shoulders.

  • Overhead Dumbbell Shoulder Press: This is the standard shoulder movement in weight training.  To perform this movement, you hold a dumbbell (moderate weight, something you can keep good form with for 12-15 reps) in each hand, and make almost like a field goal with your arms as you extend and press the dumbbells overhead.  Be careful to keep your head up and core tight.  Here is a link from Bodybuilding.com explaining the movement.  You can also do these with a Shoulder Press machine, just make sure you are lined up correctly with it before you begin, and start out a lower weight to make sure you’re using the correct one.
  • Lateral Raises: You can do these with dumbbells (my favorite!) or cables. Typically I like to do a lighter weight and go higher in volume.  You can keep a slight bend in the elbow if needed, but don’t bend it too much.  You can also change the tempo to really get a good pump!  I never do shoulders without these!! 
  • Angled Shoulder Press: These are super fun! We have a butt blaster machine in our gym that works great for these, but you can also use a barbell for them as well.  They’re easier on the front part of your deltoid muscle (front delt), than a traditional front raise, but are a great finisher, or to do a drop set with.  Here’s a picture. 
Angled Shoulder Press
Angled Shoulder Press
  • Reverse Peck Deck: Using the pec deck or chest fly machine, face the pad and move the arms out to either side of you, similar to if you were opening a cabinet. You should really feel these at the back of your shoulders.  Keep your head and spine neutral, and don’t lock your elbows.  Start with a lower weight if needed until you get the form figured out.
  • Front Raises: Personally, I like to get crazy and superset these with my lateral raises at the end of a shoulder workout.  Go lighter with these, and really focus on NOT swinging your arms to move the weight.  For added benefit, you can pause and squeeze at the top of the movement, or take them really slow.  Those are killer!

There you have it y’all!  Remember, summer bodies are made in the winter!  If you want those hot sexy shoulders come tank top season in a few months, NOW is the time to work on them!  Let me know if you have any questions—I love answering them!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!!

 

Till next time,

-Mere

Easy Ways to Change Up Your Workouts!

General Fitness, Workouts, , , ,

One of my favorite things about training is that you can constantly change up your workouts!  Since I’m in offseason, I have really been changing things up with my weightlifting split and routine to push myself in the gym.  Here are some of my favorite ways to mix things up!

  • Drop Sets—these can be super challenging, and can be used for almost every muscle group. I particularly love these for lat pull-downs, leg extensions, shoulder presses, and leg press.  But really, use your imagination because they can be used for pretty much every move.  The idea is that you start with a heavier weight doing less reps, and then decrease (“drop”) your weight and increase your number of reps each set.  The idea is to get a lot of blood flow to your muscle.  Your first set should be challenging and heavy!  Sometimes I like to go until failure each set, dropping the weight each time.  Also, make sure you’re not resting very long between sets.  30-45 seconds is plenty of time.

For lat pull downs, it might look something like this:

  • Set 1– 10 reps at 110 pounds
  • Set 2– 15 reps at 90 or 100 pounds
  • Set 3– 20 reps at 80 or 90 pounds

 

  • Pyramid Sets—similar to drop sets, pyramid sets involve increasing the weight and decreasing the number of reps, but you also come back up in weight, so typically you’re doing 5-7 sets. These are tough!  I love to do them for Bicep curls and squats!  Keep your rest periods short, and make sure you are only using a weight that you can safely move with good form.  Try it like this with dumbbell bicep curls:
    • Set 1- 12 reps at 20 pounds
    • Set 2- 15 reps at 15 pounds
    • Set 3- 20 reps at 10 pounds
    • Set 4- 15 reps at 15 pounds
    • Set 5- 10-12 reps or to failure at 20 pounds.

 

  • Super Sets—these are one of my all time FAVORITE things to incorporate into a workout! In fact, I superset something pretty much every day I’m in the gym.  They’re time savers, and a great way to really get a muscle group to hypertrophy, which will encourage muscle growth!  Supersetting means that you preform two exercises (using the same or opposing muscle groups) back to back with no rest in between.  They are really great for legs, and arm workouts (supersetting bis and tris).  Remember, no rest in between exercises.  Done correctly, these will really get your heart rate up, and get a lot of blood flow into your muscle.  Give these supersets a try:
    • Leg Press supersetted with plie squats or squat jumps
    • Bicep curls supersetted with tricep extensions or skull crushers.

You can even go crazy and add on a third exercise for a GIANT set!

  • FST-7s. FST stands for Fascia Stretch Training.  This training concept was created by Nicole Wilkins and Phil Heath’s trainer, the legendary Hany Rambod.  Basically it involves doing 7 sets of the same exercise with roughly 8-10 reps each set and very little rest in between sets.  Like 15-20 seconds between sets.  They need to be done as a finisher at the end of your workout, or at the end of training the particular body part you are using them on.  They get a great “pump” to the muscle, because all those reps really build up bloodflow.  These are tough but soooo much fun!  I like to do them for shoulder presses, lateral raises, bicep curls, typically smaller muscle groups, but you can use them for back and legs as well.  The basic formula for an FST looks like this:
    • 7 sets of 10 reps at the same weight, with 15-20 seconds between sets. *Note—you may have to drop weight.  Sets 5-7 are particularly challenging, and you will likely go to failure J

So there you have it!  4 easy ways to really mix things up and challenge yourself in the gym.  Be creative with your workouts—I can promise you that you will enjoy your workouts even more!

 

Till next time,

-Mere

I’m in the Gym – Now What?

General Fitness, Workouts, , , ,

One of the questions I get asked most often is how I figured out how to train.  How many reps?  How many exercises?  How often for each body part? How much weight?  How will I know if I’m doing it right?  Trust me when I say there really is no perfect answer.  What I’m learning on my journey is that you really learn as you go.  We all are—even the most experienced trainers and bodybuilders I know are still learning, experimenting, and still changing their workouts up.  Isn’t that cool?  It’s one of my favorite things about training—you’re never an expert, and you can always keep learning and trying new things.  Like I’ve mentioned so many times before, it’s important that you try to educate yourself as much as possible.  Use different resources.  Bodybuilding.com and Oxygen magazine are two of my FAVORITES, and they’re so easy to access.  Not sure how to use a piece of equipment?  Ask trainers and other fitness professionals in your gym.  Health and fitness can be a part of everyone’s life, but not everyone chooses for it to be.  I hope that I can give some insight into some of these “how” questions I mentioned earlier so you too can start to structure your own workouts and gain more confidence with all this weight lifting stuff!

How should I structure my workout split each week?

A lot of this really depends on the time you have.  Aim for at least 4-5 workouts a week if you want to really build muscle and see results.  That should really just be weight training NOT CARDIO.  Cardio is a whole other post!  Remember that muscle will burn fat, so you want to focus on building muscle.  Of course any time in the gym is better than none at all, but I would aim to be there an hour or so.  Your major body parts/ muscle groups are: legs, back, chest, arms, and shoulders.  Abs and calves need to be thrown in there too, but you can just add those onto whatever other parts you’re training.  Depending on where you are lagging and what areas you really want to grow, you can train them as many as 2-3x a week.  You ideally want to have 1-2 days of rest between training sessions.  Try to just focus on 1 or 2 muscle groups each workout and train them HARD.  The idea is to make your muscles do more work, getting to hypertrophy (or muscle failure—we’ll talk more about that in a sec.), so that they repair and grow.  Doing so will yield more results than doing a total body workout 4-5x a week , I promise!  A good split could work like this—Monday—legs, Tuesday—arms and shoulders, Wednesday—OFF, Thursday—back, Friday—chest and shoulders, Saturday—yoga or a spin class.  SUNDAY—off.  There are ton of other examples out there though—find what works for you!

Meet Mr. Smith, my meanest friend.
Meet Mr. Smith, my meanest friend.

How many exercises and how many reps?

Here’s the fun part.  You can get creative with this.  When I first started, believe it or not I didn’t know that difference between a rep and a set!  I’ll share— a repetition or “rep” is how many times you will do each exercise or motion in a “set” which is really just a set of reps.  For example, you can do 3 sets of pushups, with 10-15 pushups or (“reps”) each set.  You would do 10-15 pushups, rest for a minute or so, another set of 10-15, rest, and then do your least set.  For beginners, I would focus on form and technique.  Building out higher volume sets into your workout routine will help you get to hypertrophy, but your workout should include a mix of both.  I started with using workouts I found online, and would sometimes build out my own.  Once I started working with my coach, he designed my workouts during Prep, but now I am back to using those as a framework and getting creative on my own as well.  I would shoot for 7-8 exercises each workout, doing 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps each.  That will give you a pretty good place to start.

Spreading my wings!
Spreading my wings!

How much weight?

It’s called working out because it takes WORK!  Your training sessions should not feel like a walk in the park—you need to push yourself!  This is different for everyone.  Here’s a good rule of thumb:  if you can knock out all of your reps easily and not feel your heart rate increase or your breathing change, you need to add more weight.  Your last 2-3 reps should be somewhat of a struggle.  The key here though is to keep good form.  If you lose your form, you can hurt yourself and that’s no bueno.   You will need to try different dumbbells and amounts of weight out to see work works for you.  A good starting weight for shoulder presses should be around 10-15 pounds for arms, and likely the same for bicep curls, but again see how many you can do.  You can do more reps with less weight and fewer reps with more weight.  If it’s heavy, you’re doing it right!  You will be surprised how quickly your strength increases.

Make sure it's heavy. AND YOU HAVE PROPER FORM!
Make sure it’s heavy. AND YOU HAVE PROPER FORM!

How will I know if I’m doing it right?

If you’re sore (not hurting—just sore!) the next day, that’s a good sign.  Sweat is good too!  Keep pushing yourself every workout, every day, and eating the right foods, and you will see results.  You will know when you’ve pushed yourself.  Consistency is key.  Make this a priority and it will pay off.  We all start somewhere.  The great thing is that there are a ton of resources out there that can show you proper form and technique, you just have to seek that information out.  I’m here to help too!

Thank you all so much again for your support and interest in my site!  I know things aren’t as exciting now that I’m not prepping for a show, but my hope is that this platform can help and encourage others to live a healthy lifestyle.  I have a special place in my heart for women who are scared of the gym and clueless as to where to start, because I was one of those girls.  You can do this!  If I can, anyone can.

Till next time,

-Mere

What am I Supposed to do With Supplements?

General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Nutrition/ Diet, , , , , , , , , ,

Hey gang!  Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted—I’ve been busy having awesome workouts and eating LOTS of healthy food!  I LOVE offseason!!!  We’re still on track for another show in the Fall.  Bring on the gainz!!!

Tonight I thought I’d talk briefly about supplements.  This is a subject area that most people don’t know a lot about. When taken correctly, supplements can really help you get the most benefit out of your training, help your muscles recover, and keep your energy levels up to keep pushing hard in the gym.  The point of supplements are to “supplement” your nutrition to provide your body with the right nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.  Supplements can include pre and post workouts, BCAAs, proteins, and vitamins, just to name a few.  There are a million different types of supplements, from a million different brands, and it can all be really overwhelming!  I know I was overwhelmed when I first started looking into them.  Where’s a girl to start?!  In true Lipglossandlifting form, I thought I’d break them down for beginners, and what I would suggest you incorporate as basics.  Be forewarned, however, this stuff is expensive.  Be sure to do your research with brands and go with QUALITY.  Supplements are usually cheaper when you buy bigger quantities as well.  We usually buy ours on www.Amazon.com, www.lockoutsupplements.com, or www.bodybuildlng.com.

I buy a lot of supplements!
I buy a lot of supplements!

Multi-Vitamins

I highly suggest a good quality multivitamin to take everyday.  WE don’t get all of the vitamins we need from the food we eat, and a good multi will help keep your immune system up and help with your skin, nails, etc.  I personally use Optiwomen by Optimum Nutrition.  Two a day—easy!  Recently I also incorporated a calcium supplement and Vitamin D supplement as well, since they’re beneficial for women in particular.  Fish Oil or EFA (essential fatty acids) pills are good to take too since they help your body repair, particularly in regard to reducing inflammation and promoting heart health.

Pre-Workouts

Every true gym lover needs a pre-workout!  They are designed to give you an energy boost, improve muscle strength and stamina, therefore helping you get the most benefit out of your weightlifting.  They help you power through like a beast!  Some have caffeine, or stimulants, others don’t.  Creatine is a muscle-building ingredient that many preworkouts have as well, but I would research it before deciding whether or not taking a “pre” with creatine in it is for you.  If you’ve never tried one or are sensitive to caffeine, I would start with BSN’s N.O. explode.  It’s pretty mild, but will definitely help you focus and give you more of a pump after your training.  Some of my favorite pre-workouts are Formulation 1’s, N.O. Explode, and Optimum Nutrition’s Pre-Workout.   These typically run you between $20 and $30.

Post-Workout

Every workout you have is taxing on your body.  It’s super important to give your body the nutrients and protein it needs right after you workout so that your muscles can begin to recover and grow.  The “anabolic window” that you may have heard of is really the 30 minute timeframe after you workout in which is the ideal time to do this.  Branch Chain Amino Acids or BCAAS and protein are the two biggest things your body needs after working out.  BSN has a great product called AminoX that I love!  Optimum Nutrition and Formulation 1 also make great BCAA products.  AminoX Fruit Punch flavor is the absolute best—Shane and I use it EVERY SINGLE workout!  I use it as an intra-workout supplement, and then follow with a protein shake afterwards.  Ideally you need to consume an equal ratio of grams of protein to grams of carbohydrates within your anabolic window too, but I would suggest starting with BCAAs.  There’s another product called Aftershock I used for a long time as a post workout that was pretty good.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is a really easy way to incorporate more protein into your diet.  Most people don’t know this, but to build muscle you really need to be consuming 1- 1 ½ grams of protein per pound of bodyweight a day.  To give you an idea of how much that is, 4oz of chicken has about 25 grams of protein.  See what I meant by eating 5-6 times a day and incorporating protein into each meal??  Protein is the main building block of muscle.  Remember that muscle burns fat, so if you’re really wanting to lose body fat, start eating more protein, lift heavy, and build that muscle!  Whey protein comes in a powder form most often, and you can mix it with either water or almond milk to make it into a shake.  It can be blended or baked too, and you can really get creative with how you incorporate it into your diet.  I usually use Whey protein as a snack, and as my post workout shake with a carbohydrate supplement as well.  Keep in mind that protein also keeps you feeling fuller longer.  Most whey proteins have about 120 calories and 25 grams of protein per serving, and are sugar free with low carbs as well.  My favorites would be Cellucor’s Red Velvet Cake Batter (it tastes like a Sprinkles cupcake!), Optimum Nutrition’s Caramel Toffee Fudge and Birthday Cake, and Dymatize’s Mint Chocolate.  They are all DELICIOUS!  I would never steer you wrong with flavors!!  Whey protein is expensive, so it pays to buy larger quantities.  It stays good a long time, and 5lb container will run you $50-$60, but will have 75 servings or so.

Here's my haul from a recent supplement shopping trip!
Here’s my haul from a recent supplement shopping trip!

Here’s my current “stack” of supplements.  Most people don’t need all of these, but this I thought I’d share mine in case you were curious.

  • Optimum Nutrition Optiwomen Multi
  • Calcium supplement
  • Vitamin D3 supplement
  • MRM Smartblend EFA capsules
  • Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite Fatburner
  • Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout (Green Apple tastes like a jolly rancher!)
  • BSN AminoX taken while I workout (the Fruit Punch flavor is just fabulous)
  • Post-workout shake with Whey Protein and Glycoject carbohydrate supplement
  • Creatine 2x a day
  • L-Glutamine mixed with pre and post workout supplements
  • I also use whey protein as a snack from time to time
This is part of my daily supplement stack. Lots to take!
This is part of my daily supplement stack. Lots to take!

If any of you have questions or other product recommendations you love I’d love to hear about them!  Feel free to email me at lipglossandlifting@gmail.com.  Happy lifting!

Till next time,

-Mere