Monday's Move of the Week

The Move: Ab Bicycles

Everyone always wants to know the most effective core move for tight and toned abdominals. Well friends, one exercise that consistently tops the charts of most effective and efficient ab exercises is the bicycle crunch. Why is this movement so effective? Well, in one movement, it targets both the rectus abdominis or the “six pack” muscle as well as the obliques which are the muscles to the right and the left of the rectus abdominis (where love handles tipically pop up…or out :) )

The Muscles worked: Rectus Abdominis and Obliques

How to:

1. Start by laying on your back with legs bent at a 90 degree angle and finger tips behind the ears with elbows out wide.
2. Contract your abdominals and bring one knee towards the chest while straightening the opposite leg to a 45 degree angle. At the same time, bring the shoulder blade off the floor and bring the opposite shoulder towards the bend knee.
3. With control, switch legs and arms; opposite shoulder towards opposite knee (the knee and shoulder do NOT need to touch)
4. Repeat until failure.
   

Trainer Tips:

• Make sure that you do not pull the head and neck with your hands…the hands are there for support only.
• Keep breathing thoughout the exercise
• You can do this movement fast or slow, but remember to keep good form at any speed

Make 'em harder: There are many ways to make this move more challenging. One of the best is to lower your straight leg so that it is about 1-2 inches off the floor. Also, you can try this movement on a BOSU ball.

Enjoy!

Fantastic Food Find Friday: Fast Food Edition

The Food Find: McDonald’s Premium Southwest Chicken Salad

The Facts: I know, I know…McDonald’s not something that people automatically think of when they think “health food.” I personally stay away from the place unless it is an absolute emergency. HOWEVER, we all have crazy busy lives and let’s be honest, there are the occasional instances when a super fast drive thru is the only way we can get a bite to eat. So, in these instances, it’s important to arm yourself with a healthy alternative to the burger and fries deal of the day.

On Tuesday, I was in one of those “situations” where I was about the eat my arm off and the only place with food between client #1 and client #2 was a little place with big golden arches. Fortunately, earlier this week, a friend gave me a coupon for a FREE Premium Southwest Chicken Salad (at which I have to say I scoffed at him and with my nose in the air I told him “I don’t eat at McDonald’s.” Sorry, Friend! I was wrong!)

The salad was actually tasty. It had a good mix of salad greens, black beans, roasted corn, peppers and tomatoes, a wee bit of cheese, a few tortilla strips and a good size grilled chicken breast (fried chicken is an option as well…don’t go there…). All of that came to 320 calories, 9 grams of fat and 6 grams of fiber. Not bad, right? An even better surprise came from the dressing, Newman’s Own Creamy Southwest Dressing, which only tacked on 100 calories and 6 grams of fat. Compared to some salad dressings, that’s a major calorie steal! The only downside to the salad that I could find was the sodium content. With 960 mg of sodium in the salad alone, that sucks up over 40% of your daily sodium allowance…yikes! But overall, the salad was a winner and I’m sure glad I found it for those “emergency” situations.

Spice it up! If I had time to spice this one up, I would add more black beans and mix one half packet of the dressing with some fresh chunky salsa…yummy!

Until next Friday…